Gazans face tough choices as their future is debated on global stage | Global News Avenue

Jabalia looks amazing from the air.

The Hiroshima-like wasteland stretches to the point where your eyes can see. The chaotic bodies of the buildings dotted with stirring landscapes, somewhat tilted.

The huge waves of rubble waves are almost impossible to find out the geographical location of the once bustling, tense refugee camp.

However, when a drone camera flew past the wreckage, it picked out the blue and white splashes, and a small tent camp had been established on the open ground.

Numbers, climbing up the broken buildings and moving along the dirt streets, where the food market surfaces under tin roofs and canvas awnings. Children use collapsed roofs as slides.

Jabbaria slowly recovered her life after more than six weeks of a fragile ceasefire in Gaza.

Nabil, near al-qasasib, returned to a four-story house, and even with the lack of windows, doors and in some places – walls, it was still in some way.

He and his relatives made rough balconies with wooden pallets and spread tarp to prevent elements.

“Look at the destruction,” he said as he investigated Jabbaria’s ruined ocean from the open upper floor.

“They hope we don’t rebuild it and leave? How can we leave. The least we can do is rebuild it for our children.”

To cook a meal, Nabil lights a fire on the exposed stairs and carefully pierces it with torn cardboard.

Laila Ahmed Okasha is on another floor, washed in a sink that was dry a few months ago.

“There is no water, electricity or sewage,” she said. “If we need water, we have to go to a faraway bucket.”

She said she cried when she returned to the house and found it was destroyed.

She accused Israel and Hamas of destroying the world she once knew.

“They’re both responsible,” she said. “We live a decent, comfortable life.”

Shortly after the war began in October 2023, Israel told Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip (including Jabbaria) to move south for their own safety.

Thousands of people heard the warning, but many stayed, determined to drive the war away.

Laila and her husband Marwan clung to the October last year when Israeli troops re-propaganda Jabalia, saying Hamas had reorganized combat units in the narrow streets of the camp.

After two months of shelter at the nearby Sati Camp, Leila and Marwan returned and found Jabalia was barely recognizable.

“When we came back and saw it was destroyed, I didn’t want to stay here anymore,” Mawan said.

“I’ve lived a wonderful life, but it’s a hell now. If I had the chance to leave, I’ll leave. I won’t stay for another minute.”

Stay or go? The future of Gaza civilians is now the subject of international debate.

In February, Donald Trump suggested that the United States should take over Gaza and that nearly 2 million Palestinian residents should leave, possibly forever.

Faced with international anger and fierce opposition from the Arab leaders, Trump then appeared to withdraw from the plan, saying he recommended it but would not force anyone.

Meanwhile, Egypt has led Arab efforts to propose viable alternatives that will be presented at the emergency Arab summit in Cairo on Tuesday.

Crucially, it said that the Palestinian population should remain in Gaza when rebuilding the region.

Donald Trump’s intervention has made Gaza famously stubborn aspects.

“If Trump wants us to leave, I will stay in Gaza,” Laila said. “I want to travel freely. I won’t leave because of him.”

On the way, sitting on a nine-story yellow platform, with such huge damage, it’s hard to believe it hasn’t collapsed.

The upper level was completely in trouble and threatened the rest. It certainly has to be demolished over time, but for now, it is home to more families. There are sheets on the windows, which hang in the late winter sun.

The most unpleasant thing is that outside a temporary plastic door on the corner of the ground floor, next to it was rubble and garbage, wearing a wedding dress.

This is the dress shop of Sanaa Abu Ishbak.

The 45-year-old tailor is the 11-year-old mother two years ago, but had to give up on it when she fled the South in November 2023.

She came back immediately after the ceasefire. She and her husband and daughter are busy cleaning up store debris, arrange dresses on clothes hangers, and prepare for the business.

“I love Jabalia camp and I won’t leave it until I die,” she said.

Sanaa and Laila seem to be equally determined to stay the same. But when they talk about young people, both women speak differently.

“She doesn’t even know how to write her name,” Laila said of her granddaughter.

“There is no education in Gaza.”

The little girl’s mother was killed during the war. Laila said she was still talking to her at night.

“She is the soul of my soul, she left her daughter in my hands. If I had the opportunity to travel, I would do it for my granddaughter.”