As news leaked of the long-awaited ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday night, several thousand Palestinians in the Gaza Strip did not hold back: they poured into the dark and devastated streets, chanting, singing, crying and screaming. They fired into the air in celebration.
But for most, joy is sweeping Gaza The expected cessation of the devastating war that has been going on for 15 months – the bloodiest in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – mixed with grief over death and destruction and the recognition that their lives will never be the same again.
“People are very happy,” said Shifa al-Ghazali, a mother of four young children in Gaza City, who lost her husband, mother, brother and two uncles in the war. “I am (also) optimistic despite the pain.”
“We have lost everything, including our loved ones, but it is time to stop this torrent of blood,” said Nidaa Aita, a businesswoman who has been living for months with hundreds of thousands of displaced people in a crowded tent city on a windswept beach. In the coastal area of Al-Mawasi.
“My house in Gaza City was bombed and destroyed, but I am content to return and live among its ruins. I cannot believe that we will finally return home. I have been displaced 14 times.”
The plight of Gazans, living under a ferocious Israeli siege and bombardment since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on the Jewish state that officials say killed 1,200 people, has reverberated around the world.
More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military bombardments and ground incursions, according to officials, and many people have yet to come to terms with the devastating loss of many of their family members.
With much of the Gaza Strip reduced to rubble, some 1.9 million of the besieged enclave's 2.3 million residents have been displaced, many repeatedly. Health authorities in Gaza say that thousands of other uncounted bodies are still under the rubble.
Most of the displaced have taken refuge in Al-Mawasi, which Israel has classified as a “humanitarian area” but is still occasionally targeted by deadly Israeli fire.
In what became known as “Yateem City” — a camp in Al Mawasi for families whose breadwinners were killed — organizer and teacher Mahmoud Kalakh said news of the truce was greeted with joy as people ululated and burst into song.
“People are very happy that this nightmare is over…but it is mixed with deep sadness. Because once the war is over, a new bleeding will begin – a bleeding of pain and loss.” “Here everyone lives the same pain, everyone has lost their fathers or mothers. . . But when people begin to return home, the real feelings of loss and suffering will begin.
After consultations with the families – the camp hosts about 3,000 people – Kalach said they decided to keep the “orphan city” open because many had nowhere to go.
Muhammad, a 14-year-old boy who lives in another camp, lost his mother and father in the Israeli bombing. “We hope that the war will end so that we can continue our lives and do normal things,” said Mohammed, whose leg was amputated due to his injury in the war. “I personally want to play football.”
The truce is scheduled to begin on Sunday With an initial ceasefire for six weeksIt is expected to finally bring relief to both sides. The Israelis hope this will lead to the release of all 98 remaining hostages held in Gaza since October 7, the bloodiest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
For the people of Gaza, it is an opportunity to begin to address the catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the Strip. Electricity has been cut off since the beginning of the war, and the health system has collapsed under repeated attacks by Israeli forces, who say Hamas activists are hiding inside hospitals.
Israeli restrictions on aid convoys have also led to severe shortages of fuel, food and warm clothing, with UN officials saying many, especially in the isolated north, have been on the brink of starvation for months. As part of the deal, Israel must allow 600 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid into the Strip daily.
However, the venting process was tinged with profound uncertainty about how much relief Gazans could expect. On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed a cabinet meeting to approve the deal, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed, on Thursday, a cabinet meeting to approve the deal. Under pressure from far-right members of his coalition who oppose the deal.
Once the ceasefire comes into effect, negotiators will still need to complete the second – and perhaps third – phase of the deal in order to permanently end the war and, in theory, ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Strip.
Israel also intensified its bombing of the Strip before Sunday, with Palestinian health authorities reporting on Thursday that attacks since the announcement of the ceasefire agreement had killed 77 people and injured about 250 others.
A massive reconstruction mission across Gaza awaits millions of tons of broken concrete filled with unexploded bombs that will take years to remove, UN officials said.
Umm Ahmed, a mother of three who lives in Al-Mawasi with her husband, was displaced from Jabalia, a once bustling northern town of 200,000 people. Turned into rubble As a result of an intensive Israeli military operation that has been ongoing since October. She planned to return even though her home was gone.
“They say there will be tents or caravans we can live in,” she said. “We don’t know if things will get better and if we will stay safe or something bad will happen. Only God knows. It’s been difficult here because we don’t have money, but only peace matters now.”
Fidaa Ziad, a writer who was displaced with her family from Gaza City, said she was also looking forward to returning to the north to search the ruins of her home for any memento of her late mother.
Ziad also wants to be reunited with her sister, a doctor who she says is currently under siege by Israeli forces in a hospital in northern Gaza. “After I meet my loved ones, all I want to do is sit on the beach and look at the sea,” she said. “My great hope now is that this nightmare will end.”
Cartography by Aditi Bhandari
