In Gaza, the ceasefire agreement brings ‘a little bit of relief’

Residents of the Gaza Strip greeted the news of a temporary ceasefire with mixed feelings on Wednesday. They expressed hope for a reprieve from Israel’s brutal bombardment, but were concerned that the brief pause did not mean the end of the war.

“There is a bit of relief,” Ahmed Nassar, a 27-year-old taxi driver, said in a telephone interview, adding that he hoped the deal would not go through. “God willing, we’ll see it at midnight.”

The start of the ceasefire – which would allow the release of 50 hostages in Gaza and 150 Palestinian prisoners in Israel – would be announced within 24 hours and last at least four days, said the Qatari government, which helped lead the negotiations to lead. The pause in fighting would also allow the delivery of more aid and fuel to civilians in Gaza, Qatar said.

Mr Nassar, who fled his northern neighborhood of Jabaliya in Gaza and now lives in the central part of the Gaza Strip, said the deal raised the prospect that a longer ceasefire could be reached in coming weeks, putting his family would get the chance to go back and check their home.

But Israeli officials have indicated that the war aimed at rooting out Hamas, which rules Gaza, will continue. For now, the 1.7 million Palestinians displaced by the fighting will not be allowed to return to their homes during the lull.

The four-day pause “does not guarantee the end of military operations in the Gaza Strip,” said Bisan Owda, who has documented the war on social media. “This period is not enough to remove and bury the dead bodies from the rubble, to search for the missing people, to clear the roads, to treat the injured.”

Health authorities in Gaza say more than 12,000 people have been killed since the start of Israel’s retaliation against Hamas for the October 7 terrorist attacks that killed about 1,200 people in Israel, according to Israeli officials. Most of the 1.7 million displaced people fled their homes in the north of the area and were evacuated south after repeated Israeli orders.

“I want to go home,” Hind Khoudary, a freelance journalist who stayed behind to document the war after her family was evacuated from the strip, said on Instagram. A temporary break “without going home is pointless,” she added.

Firas Al-Derby, 17, who shelters with his parents at an overcrowded United Nations school in the south, said he had not heard the news about the ceasefire and prisoner exchanges because of poor communications networks in Gaza. When a reporter from The New York Times told him by phone about the overnight deal, he sounded disappointed. The news meant little to his mother, Hanan, who suffers from cancer and was unable to continue her treatment after Gaza’s only cancer hospital was decommissioned last month.

“Do you think my mother would be happy with a temporary ceasefire?” he said. “The only thing that would make her happy now is if she could continue her cancer treatment.”

The mood at school was not festive Wednesday morning, he said, because recess is not meant to last long.

“This deal is not a truce,” he said. “It is rest time for the soldiers.”