Memories of Sand and Sea: Gush Katif Residents Mark 10 Years to Disengagement

Photo Credit: Anav Silverman / Tazpit News Agency

Today, Hodaya Giat and her family live in Shavei Darom, Returners to the South in Hebrew, a community made up of 20 Kfar Darom families in the Merhavim Regional Council, which is located in the northwestern Negev.

“I still wait to return,” Hodaya Giat told Tazpit. Ten years after the Disengagement, she and her family, like countless Gush Katif families live in temporary housing units, known as caravillas. “I still have hope that someday we can return to the beaches, to our homes.”

But her mother thinks differently. “I don’t have the strength to go back, even if it was a possibility” says Orna Giat. “We gave everything to this country during our time in Gush Katif. I leave this hope of return to the next generation.”