They left Gaza to survive, not to disappear completely. More than 100,000 Palestinians from Gaza remain overseas after fleeing Israel’s genocide. Some escaped through Egypt for medical treatment, while others left with wounded children, elderly parents, or whatever relatives they could still protect.
Many expect to return once the bombing stops and a real ceasefire actually takes place. They remain scattered across Cairo, Turkey, and other countries, watching their homeland from a distance while the path back remains blocked by insecurity, destroyed homes, and genocide.
As per credible sources, only around 7,000 Palestinians have returned to Gaza. For the rest, exile has become a waiting room without a clear door out. Israel still controls more than 60% of the territory, airstrikes continue, and most Palestinians inside Gaza remain crowded into areas of temporary shelter with inadequate aid and no real reconstruction in sight.
Unfortunately, this is not ordinary migration. It is not the search for a better salary, a foreign passport, or a comfortable life abroad. In fact, it is forced displacement shaped by bombing, grief, closed crossings and the fear that temporary escape may become permanent removal.
Leaving Was Not Abandonment
The powerful story of Omar al-Hassayna shows the scale of the wound. He fled Gaza for Cairo after an Israeli strike destroyed apartment buildings in Gaza City where relatives had gathered for shelter. Consequently, around 308 members of his extended family were killed in that attack. His wife, four adult sons and four small grandchildren were among the dead. In August, he watched from Cairo as relatives buried 112 family members whose bodies had been recovered from the rubble, while dozens were still missing.
A man carrying that grief is not a migrant who has “moved on.” In reality, he is a survivor whose family, business, neighbourhood, and future were torn apart by Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Like thousands of others abroad, he is not free in the way outsiders imagine. He is safe from the immediate bomb, but not free from Gaza. His dead are there along with his memories and identity.
That is why the language matters. To call these Palestinians simply “overseas” or “abroad” misses the violence behind their absence. Many were pushed out by conditions Israel created: mass bombardment, destroyed hospitals, starvation, rubble-filled streets, and the collapse of ordinary life. Their displacement cannot be separated from the machinery that made Gaza unlivable.
The Right to Return Is Not Sentiment
For Palestinians, return is not nostalgia, but a political and moral right.
In reality, a person cannot be told to leave under fire and then be treated as though their absence has weakened their claim to home. A family does not lose Gaza because it crossed into Egypt to save a wounded child. A mother does not lose her street because her house was bombed. Likewise, a refugee does not stop being Palestinian because the world finds their return inconvenient.
This is why Gaza’s new exile carries the shadow of the Nakba. Palestinians know what can happen when “temporary” displacement becomes permanent. In 1948, families who believed they would soon return became refugees for generations. Today, many Gazans fear the same pattern.
In this regard, Reuters reported that some Israeli politicians have urged policies encouraging Gaza’s population to leave and preventing those who left from returning. That is not a minor political detail. It reveals why Palestinians are right to fear that displacement is not only a side effect of Israel’s genocide, but one of its possible outcomes.
Families Scattered Across Countries
Unfortunately, Gaza’s exile has split families into pieces. One daughter may be in Turkey for medical reasons, while her brother is in Cairo. A widow may be living with children in another rented room. Other relatives may still be inside Gaza, surviving in tents or damaged buildings. The family WhatsApp group becomes a map of loss – who escaped, who stayed, who died, who is missing, who cannot cross back.
These separations do not end when the genocidal bombing pauses. They continue in residency problems, unpaid rent, temporary visas, medical bills, language barriers, and the humiliation of depending on savings or charity. Many Gazans abroad cannot work legally or plan long-term. They are not fully settled where they are, yet Gaza remains unsafe and unreconstructed.
This is how genocide continues beyond the battlefield. It breaks the bonds that allow a people to live together, including a home, street, school, work, burial, marriage, memory, and return.
