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After Israel's annihilation of Gaza, can I ever return home?

middleeasteye.net · 2h · first reportShare

After Israel's annihilation of Gaza, can I ever return home? Submitted by Bahzad al Akhras on Wed, 08/12/2026 - 17:30 The destruction of my family's house was not simply a loss of walls or furniture. It was the erasure of a place that once held our lives together A boy sweeps through the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli bombardment of Maghazi refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, on 12 June 2026 (Eyad Baba/AFP) Off It was a routine online meeting with my academic supervisors during the summer. One of them, who had just returned from visiting her home country, spoke about the joy of being surrounded by family, the comfort of familiar places, and the quiet sense of belonging that comes from returning home. Then she used a phrase that has stayed with me ever since: “The privilege of home.” Until that moment, I had never considered home a privilege. I had always thought of it as something ordinary, something everyone simply had. But since leaving Gaza almost a year ago, those three