GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — On Oct. 13 representatives from various Palestinian factions inaugurated Return Park in the Malika camp meters from the Gaza-Israel border fence and including part of the buffer zone that Israel forbids Palestinians from entering. The park marks the starting point of the Great Return March, the series of demonstrations held every Friday in Malika and four other camps going back to March 30, 2018, to draw attention to the situation in Gaza and the Palestinians' dispossession.

The park contains green spaces for walking and places to sit. There is also a spot reserved for meetings of the Higher National Commission for the Great Return March and Breaking the Siege, the group in charge of organizing the protests composed mainly of representatives from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

At the inaugural event, Khaled al-Batsh, head of the national commission, said in a speech, “The aim behind opening the park is pumping life into the buffer areas where Israel [shoots] and kills Palestinian people.” He asserted that the marches had become a “life project” for Palestinians, claiming that they will continue until their goals are met, in particular breaking the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza since 2007.

The park sits on 10 dunams of land that had once been used as a site for dumping the rubble of houses and other structures destroyed by Israel in its 2014 war on Gaza. According to Talal Abu Zarifeh, another national commission member, “Establishing this park is a message to the world: Palestinian people want a new life, far from suffering and killing.” He added, “The marches of return are trying to fulfill these goals.”