🔗 Share this article

During the early hours of Thursday, one could observe little joy in Gaza. The news of the imminent ceasefire had spread rapidly throughout the war-torn region throughout the evening, accompanied by sporadic gunfire aimed at the clouds in celebration, yet with the arrival of dawn the sentiment shifted to apprehensive waiting.

“Everyone is still afraid,” remarked a female resident located in al-Mawasi, the densely populated and impoverished coastal belt where numerous families are residing in makeshift tents and vinyl dwellings.

“We anticipate a public statement along with concrete assurances to reopen the border passages, bringing in food, and stopping the killing, ruin and population transfers.”

In the vicinity, a 64-year-old man named Abbas Hassouna said he and his family were “waiting for a formal proclamation and solid commitments for opening the crossings, bringing in food, and stopping the killing, demolition and displacement”.

“When we see these things happen, only then will we truly believe them. However currently, anxiety continues. Authorities may withdraw suddenly or break the agreement as before leaving us trapped within the perpetual loop without any improvement only additional hardship,” Hassouna expressed, who is from northern Gaza yet has experienced relocation repeatedly.

Conflicting Feelings Within Inhabitants

A middle-aged resident Ola al-Nazli explained she heard of the ceasefire via local residents within the al-Mawasi district. “I did not know regarding my reaction, if I should celebrate or sad. We’ve encountered similar situations many times before, and each time our hopes were dashed once more, so this time fear and caution have intensified,” said Nazli, who had to abandon her dwelling in the urban center due to the latest military operations in the city.

“People reside in tents that fail to safeguard from the cold or from the bombing. Those who had money or occupations suffered complete loss. Consequently any joy we feel is accompanied by pain and fear. I simply desire that we may reside protected, not hear the sound of bombs, avoiding displacement, and that border passages will be accessible quickly,” Nazli added.

Relief Arrangements Underway

Aid agencies said they were preparing to saturate the territory with sustenance and vital provisions. The detailed strategy includes provisions for a surge of relief efforts. The World Health Organization chief, the health organization’s leader, stated the organization stood ready to increase activities to address critical medical requirements throughout the territory, and facilitate reconstruction of the destroyed health system”.

The UN agency serving Palestinian refugees, welcomed the deal as major respite, and stated it maintained sufficient food reserves outside Gaza to provide for the battered region’s over two million people during the upcoming trimester. Although additional assistance has arrived in the region during previous days, supplies continue to be severely inadequate, humanitarian workers reported.

Hope and Anxiety Within Displaced Families

Jihad al-Hilu heard the news about the peace agreement via radio broadcast as he sat in his shelter within al-Mawasi. “In that instant, I felt a mix of happiness and comfort, like a glimmer of optimism reentered my soul following an extended period. We desperately wanted this occasion, for violence to cease and for the massacres that have destroyed numerous families to end,” Hilu in his thirties shared.

“Simultaneously, there is a great fear that lives within us. We worry that this truce could be short-lived and that hostilities may restart like earlier instances.”

Additionally exist general worries concerning what stability could deliver to the territory, in which over ninety percent of homes have suffered destruction or leveled, almost all infrastructure devastated and where numerous residents experience daily hunger. Over sixty-seven thousand Palestinians mostly civilians have lost their lives during military operations commenced after the militant attack in the autumn of 2023, which killed 1,200 also mostly civilians and saw 251 taken hostage by armed groups.

“What worries me beyond other issues is the absence of safety. Hunger can be endured, yet insecurity represents the actual calamity. I worry that the region may transform into a zone of turmoil dominated by militias and armed factions instead of law and order.”

Current Situation

Witnesses said Israeli forces fired tank shells to prevent Palestinians going back to northern areas of Gaza on Thursday morning but reported no sounds of fighting or air attacks.

A woman called Nadra Hamadeh, her sibling, her sister’s husband, two nieces and another relative perished during the conflict, expressed her desire to return from al-Mawasi to the northern territory at the earliest opportunity to assess her property, that she thinks to be damaged but not destroyed.

“My heart is heavy for those who lost their relatives and offspring and properties … As for us, we hope for returning to our home which we had to evacuate. The emotion continues like our spirits were extracted from our beings at the time of evacuation,” Hamadeh, 57 commented.

“Our hope is that conflict concludes,