As news of the long-awaited ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas trickled out on Wednesday night, many thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza strip did not hold back: they poured out into the dark, bombed-out streets, cheered, sang, cried and fired guns into the air in celebration.
But for most, the joy sweeping Gaza at the expected halt to the devastating 15-month war — the most deadly in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — is mixed with grief at the death, destruction and recognition that their lives can never be the same again.
“People are very happy,” said Shifa al-Ghazali, a mother of four young children in Gaza City who has lost her husband, mother, brother and two uncles in the war. “I [too] am optimistic despite my pain.”
“We lost everything, including loved ones, but it is time this torrent of blood has been stemmed,” said Nidaa Aita, a businesswoman who has been living for months with hundreds of thousands of displaced people in a congested tent city on a windswept beach in the coastal Al-Mawasi area.
“My house in Gaza City was bombed and destroyed but I am content to go back and live in its ruins. I can’t believe we will finally go home. I have been displaced 14 times.”
The plight of Gazans, who have lived under ferocious Israeli siege and bombardment since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 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 bombardment and ground incursions, according to officials, with many people yet to come to terms with the shattering loss of multiple family members.
With much of Gaza reduced to rubble, some 1.9mn of the besieged enclave’s 2.3mn residents have been displaced, many repeatedly. Gazan health authorities say thousands more uncounted bodies remain under the debris.
Most of the displaced have sought refuge in Al-Mawasi, designated by Israel “a humanitarian zone” but still targeted occasionally by lethal Israeli firepower.
In what has become known as “Orphan City” — a camp in Al-Mawasi for families whose breadwinners have been killed — organiser and teacher Mahmoud Kalakh said news of the truce was welcomed with joy as people ululated and burst into song.
“People are so glad this nightmare has ended . . . but it is mixed with deep sorrow. Because as soon as the war ends, a new bleeding will begin — that of pain and loss,” Kalakh said. “Here everyone is living the same pain, everyone has lost their fathers or mothers . . . but as people begin to return home, the true feelings of loss and agony will start.”
After consultations with the families — some 3,000 people are hosted in the camp — Kalakh said they had decided to keep the “Orphan City” open because so many had nowhere to go.
Mohammad, a 14-year-old in another camp, lost his mother and father to Israeli bombing. “We hope the war will end so we can continue our lives and just do normal things,” said Mohammad, whose leg was amputated because of a wartime injury. “I personally want to play football.”
The truce, which is set to begin on Sunday with an initial six-week ceasefire, is expected to finally bring relief to both sides. Israelis hope it will lead to the release of all remaining 98 hostages held in Gaza since October 7, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
For Gazans, it is a chance to start addressing the catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the enclave. There has been no mains electricity since the start of the war, and the health system has collapsed under frequent attack by Israeli forces who say Hamas militants hide inside hospitals.
Israeli restrictions on aid convoys have also led to severe shortages of fuel, food and warm clothes, with UN officials saying many, especially in the cut-off north, have been on the edge of famine for months. As part of the deal, Israel is required to allow 600 truckloads of humanitarian aid into the strip a day.
Yet the catharsis was tinged with deep uncertainty about how much relief Gazans can expect. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday delayed a cabinet meeting to approve the deal, after coming under pressure from far-right members of his coalition who oppose the deal.
And once the ceasefire goes into effect, negotiators will still need to finalise the second — and potentially third — phase of the deal in order to bring the war to a permanent end and, in theory, ensure the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the strip.
Israel has also stepped up bombardment of the strip ahead of Sunday, with Palestinian health authorities reporting on Thursday that attacks since the ceasefire agreement was announced have killed 77 people and wounded some 250 more.
Across Gaza, a huge reconstruction job awaits, with millions of tonnes of broken concrete studded with unexploded bombs that will take years to clear, UN officials have said.
Om Ahmed, mother of three living in Al-Mawasi with her husband, was displaced from Jabalia, a once bustling northern township of 200,000 people reduced to rubble by an intense 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 there or caravans we can live in,” she said. “We don’t know if things will improve and if we will remain safe or if something bad will happen. Only God knows. It has been hard here because we have no money, but now only peace matters.”
Fedaa Zeyad, a writer who was displaced with 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.
Zeyad also wants to be reunited with her sister, a doctor who, she said, is currently under siege by Israeli forces in a hospital in northern Gaza. “After I meet loved ones, all I want to do is sit on the beach and look at the sea,” she said. “My great hope now is just that this nightmare would end.”
Cartography by Aditi Bhandari
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