🔗 Share this article

On Thursday morning, there was little joy in Gaza. Reports of the pending peace agreement had circulated quickly across the devastated territory throughout the evening, accompanied by sporadic gunfire fired into the sky to express relief, however when daybreak appeared the atmosphere turned to nervous expectation.

“Everyone is still afraid,” said a young woman in her twenties based in the al-Mawasi area, the cramped and unsanitary shoreline zone where much of the population are residing within provisional structures and plastic shacks.

“We are waiting for a public statement coupled with tangible promises to reopen the border passages, bringing in food, and stopping the killing, ruin and population transfers.”

Nearby, an elderly resident Abbas Hassouna said he and his family were “waiting for a verified communication and solid commitments for border access, bringing in food, and stopping the killing, destruction and displacement”.

“Once these developments occur, then we can genuinely trust them. However currently, apprehension persists. They could backtrack at any moment or dishonor the deal as before and we will remain in the same endless cycle with nothing changing just further agony,” Hassouna expressed, a native of Gaza’s north but has been displaced repeatedly.

Mixed Emotions Among Inhabitants

Ola al-Nazli, 47 mentioned she discovered of the ceasefire via local residents in the al-Mawasi zone. “I felt confused how to feel, if I should celebrate or sad. We’ve encountered similar situations many times before, and on each occasion our hopes were dashed once more, therefore now apprehension and wariness have reached new heights,” Nazli revealed, who was compelled to evacuate her dwelling in the urban center due to the latest military operations there.

“All residents exist in tents that fail to safeguard from the cold or amid explosions. Those who had money or occupations lost everything. Consequently any joy we feel is mixed with suffering and anxiety. I simply desire that we can live securely, away from detonations, avoiding displacement, and that border passages will open soon,” Nazli added.

Aid Measures Ongoing

Relief groups stated they were organizing to saturate the territory with food and vital provisions. The 20-point plan ensures a surge of aid delivery. The leader of the global health agency, the WHO director, said his agency stood ready to expand operations to respond to urgent healthcare demands for Gazan patients, and to support rehabilitation of the devastated medical infrastructure”.

The UN agency dedicated to refugee assistance, hailed the agreement as a “huge relief”, and said it maintained sufficient food reserves beyond the territory to provide for the devastated territory’s over two million people during the upcoming trimester. While increased support has arrived in the region over past weeks, amounts remain severely inadequate, humanitarian workers said.

Hope and Anxiety Within Displaced Families

Jihad al-Hilu received information regarding the truce on a radio while residing in his temporary dwelling within al-Mawasi. “In that instant, I sensed a blend of elation and respite, as if some hope came back to my spirit subsequent to prolonged anticipation. We were longing for this point in time, for the blood to stop and for the atrocities that have shattered countless households to conclude,” Hilu, 33 told the Guardian.

“Simultaneously, prevails substantial anxiety that lives within us. We fear that this truce could be short-lived and that hostilities may restart similar to previous occasions.”

Additionally exist general worries concerning what stability could deliver to the territory, in which over ninety percent of residences have been damaged or demolished, nearly every facility devastated and where numerous residents face regular food shortages. More than 67,000 Palestinians mostly civilians have been killed during military operations launched in the aftermath the armed incursion during late 2023, that resulted in 1,200 deaths also primarily non-combatants with 251 individuals captured by combatants.

“What worries me more than anything is the lack of security. Starvation is tolerable, yet insecurity constitutes the true catastrophe. I fear that the territory might become a zone of turmoil ruled by gangs and armed factions rather than proper governance.”

Ongoing Developments

Witnesses said military personnel launched projectiles to deter residents going back to northern areas of the region during Thursday’s dawn but reported lack of battle sounds or aerial bombardments.

A woman called Nadra Hamadeh, whose sister, her relative, two young relatives and her daughter’s husband were killed in the war, mentioned her aspiration to come back from al-Mawasi to northern Gaza quickly to check on her home, that she thinks experienced destruction though not completely ruined.

“There is deep sorrow for individuals who surrendered their relatives and offspring and homes … As for us, we hope for going back to our residence which we had to evacuate. The emotion continues like our spirits were taken from our bodies at the time of evacuation,” Hamadeh in her fifties expressed.

“Our hope is that hostilities cease,