Why Palestinians fear that if they leave northern Gaza they may never be able to return

Israelis see this time period differently. After the Holocaust, hundreds of thousands of Jews sought refuge in the newly created State of Israel for their own safety. Jews had also been emigrating to Ottoman- and then British-ruled Palestine for decades.

The Israeli government has said it doesn’t intend to occupy the Gaza Strip or permanently expel Palestinians. On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the Israelis have “absolutely no intent, no desire, to be running Gaza themselves.”