Israeli troops among ruined buildings along the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza on Friday local time. Photo / Heidi Levine, for The Washington Post
Palestinians in Gaza yesterday greeted Hamas’ conditional acceptance of United States President Donald Trump’s deal to end the two-year Israel-Gaza war with a mix of cautious optimism and weary scepticism that the leaders of the two sides would finally agree to stop fighting.
Ola Jouda, 31, said she supported “ending the war as quickly as possible and by any means, even if there are concessions … we do not want”.
“We all in Gaza want the war to stop at any cost,” she told the Washington Post in a WhatsApp message from central Gaza.
“We literally lost everything, we were humiliated, we lost our loved ones, our homes, and our money, and there is nothing left to cry over.”
Ibrahim Abu Khalas, a paramedic in central Gaza, watched reports of Israeli strikes on and feared the deal wouldn’t end the bloodshed. “Unfortunately, this is a very weak agreement,” he said. “The two sides will soon return to fighting.”
His pessimism came from experience. A one-week ceasefire in November 2023 and a two-month ceasefire from January to March allowed aid to flow in and displaced Gazans to return to their homes. But each collapsed, to be followed by an increase in violence.
Jouda said she has no home to return to; it was destroyed, she said, in an Israeli airstrike.
Now living in a tent in central Gaza, her biggest concern is finding her father, Abdul Aziz, who disappeared last year.
She doesn’t know if he’s dead or is one of the several thousand Palestinian men who have been detained in Israeli prisons and might be released in an exchange.
“We are all hoping for the success of the ceasefire and the end of the war because, by God, we are all so tired,” she said.
Israel launched its campaign in response to the surprise Hamas attack of October 7, 2023.
Hamas-led fighters streamed out of Gaza early that day, killed 1200 people, Israeli authorities say, and took another 250 back to the enclave as hostages. Forty-eight hostages remain in Gaza; about 20 are believed to still be alive.
Israel vowed to eradicate Hamas. Israeli forces have killed more than 67,000 people in Gaza, health officials there say, and displaced virtually the entire population.
Entire neighbourhoods have been razed; most houses, farmland, roads and infrastructure have been damaged or are ruined.
Israel broke the second ceasefire, saying Hamas wasn’t negotiating in good faith, and imposed a two-month blockade that led the global hunger authority to declare famine in the Gaza City region and caused a spike in hunger deaths.
An independent United Nations commission last month found Israel’s actions in Gaza to be a genocide. The commission’s report followed similar conclusions by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, foreign governments, Israeli rights groups and Amnesty International.
Abu Khalas said he feared that the central political calculations that torpedoed the previous ceasefires remained.
“Neither [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu nor Hamas wants a prisoner and hostage exchange,” he said in a WhatsApp message.
With hostages still in Gaza, he said, “Netanyahu maintains the reasons for war, and Hamas continues to exist.”
Reem, a mother-of-four in Gaza City, said the uncertainty is all-consuming. Speaking on the condition that her last name be withheld out of concern for her family’s safety, she said she was “afraid that Israel will return to war after the return of the hostages.”
“I am very, very worried,” she said. “But I trust in God … I am certain that whatever happens is for the best for us.”
Israel this week cut Gaza City off from the rest of the enclave and warned that anyone who remained would be considered a terrorist.
Hundreds of thousands have fled the city, but Reem has stayed. “The humanitarian situation in Gaza is extremely difficult,” she said.
The Army has taken over her neighbourhood, she said, so she’s staying with an acquaintance. Food and water are scarce.
Still, the intensive bombing that has pummelled the city for weeks let up some yesterday as Israel paused its advance. Reem doesn’t know whether her apartment is still habitable.
Five people were killed, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Zaher Waheidi said on Saturday, bringing the 24-hour death toll to 66. Later, 17 people, including seven children aged 2 months to 8 years, were killed in the Israeli bombardment of a residential area in Tuffah, east of Gaza City, Gaza civil defence officials said. Fifteen people were trapped under rubble; crews were searching for the missing.
Physician Mohammed Harara told the Post that Hamas’ acceptance of Trump’s plan, with conditions, brought immediate relief.
The number of wounded brought to the Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah had dropped dramatically, he said.
“Will it succeed?” he asked. “I expect it will succeed because there is nothing left for it [the war] to continue and no purpose for its existence.”
But “the danger is not over yet”, he cautioned. “The Army is still inside Gaza and has not withdrawn yet, but people are trying to return to places far from the Army’s presence.”
Akram Abu Khousa awoke dreaming of fresh, cold strawberry juice from his farm in Beit Lahia. He has never given up hope of returning to the fields sown by his father and grandfather.
He was optimistic about a deal, he said, partly because he needs something to hope for.
“God willing, it will succeed,” he told the Post. “Of course, we must return to our land again as quickly as possible, to till and plant anew.”
Mahmoud Ibrahim Thabet remained wary. The 31-year-old, who ran an ice cream and cake shop before the war, has two sons, aged 5 and 19 months. He has lost 12 family members in the war, he said, and been displaced to Deir al-Balah.
“People are looking for places to settle and food to eat,” he told the Post. His expectations for peace were low. “Both sides are playing us,” he said, “and we are the victims.”
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