Malak A Tantesh & Jason Burke
The Guardian / January 15, 2025
Much remains uncertain but people in Gaza are desperate for an end to their suffering.
In the battered ruins of Gaza City, the tent encampments of Al-Mawasi and the streets of Rafah, the fervent hopes of the afternoon turned to late night celebration as news spread that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas had been agreed.
Despite the continuing fear on Wednesday of last-minute problems and uncertainty over much else, crowds poured out of their makeshift shelters and damaged homes across the territory to cheer, shout and fire celebratory fusillades into the air. Many waved Palestinian flags.
“The best day in my life and the life of the Gaza people,” said Abed Radwan, a Palestinian father of three. “Thank God. Thank God. People are crying here. They don’t believe it’s true.”
Radwan, who was displaced more than a year ago from Beit Lahiya to Gaza City, said he will try to return to his home town and “rebuild my house and rebuild Beit Lahiya”.
After so many false hopes of an end to more than 15 months of fighting, the desire to believe that the bloody war was finally over overcame any misgivings. Even then, the celebrations were “cautious”, one witness said, and as the evening turned to night the streets emptied.
Many had mixed feelings. Fulla Masri (33) said she was both sad and joyful. “I am sad because I lost the most valuable human that I had, who is my husband… I lost him in November 2023 and with him I lost the feelings of all joy,” Masri told the Guardian.
“But I feel happy because this bloody war has ended, my three children and I are still alive, and we will be able to return to the north, and reunite with relatives and friends and my husband’s family. We have not seen them since the beginning of the war and I am glad that we escaped safely from this war to meet them.”
Earlier in the day, the fear of disappointment had been acute. Many worried about loved ones being killed in what might prove to be the last moments of the 15-month conflict. Intense Israeli strikes have continued in recent days, inflicting new casualties.
“I am afraid! I am afraid in the last moments that I will lose someone close to me; I have already lost many,” said Reham Yasser al-Najjar (24), currently living in Gaza City.
The war has devastated Gaza, killing more than 46,000 Palestinians and displacing most of the territory’s prewar population of 2.3 million.
“We are very nervous that this deal will be rejected and the war will continue, and our suffering continue with it.,” said Muhammad Abu Kmail (35), a digital marketing consultant from northern Gaza.
The deal will involve 33 of the roughly 100 hostages held by Hamas being exchanged for many hundreds of, or possibly 1,000, Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Israel will also withdraw its forces from some of Gaza, allow free passage for displaced people back to their homes in much of the territory and permit more aid to reach the needy.
Even if the warring sides resolve last minute snags, there will be further negotiations before there is a definitive ceasefire and the release of all the hostages. Palestinians, Arab states and Israel are also yet to agree on a common vision for the administration and reconstruction of Gaza after the war.
“There is absolutely no answer to the question of who will be in charge of Gaza the day after a ceasefire,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Al-Azhar University in Gaza.
The challenges of running and rebuilding the territory are enormous. It would take a fleet of 100 lorries 15 years to clear Gaza of rubble and cost between $500m (£394m) and $600m, a UN assessment earlier this year found.
Tented camps now stretch across what were once beaches and fields. Almost all the territory’s basic infrastructure – power cables, sewers, water pipes – has been destroyed, along with much of its healthcare system.
Abusada said people in Gaza were “tired” of Hamas and recognised that investment and humanitarian aid would be restricted if the Islamist militant organisation retained administrative control in the territory. “They know that no international country will spend a dollar if Hamas is in charge, so they want the PA or any other entity,” he said.
Earlier in the conflict, the US pushed Israel to allow the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has partial governing power in the occupied West Bank, to take over Gaza. But Israel has opposed rule by the PA, which was set up under the Oslo interim peace accords three decades ago.
Egypt is believed to have blocked a proposal by the United Arab Emirates and the US to send a force of international peacekeepers into Gaza and set up a provisional administration there, potentially under the auspices of the UN. Instead, Cairo has proposed that a “community support committee” of notables and officials should be formed to run Gaza.
Residents of Gaza, exhausted after more than a year of extreme violence and deprivation, say they have little preference over exactly who runs the territory, if peace returns and authorities can bring security as well as reconstruction.
Abu Kmail said: “I am not interested in political matters and who will rule Gaza, but we want a fair administration that will rebuild the future of Gaza and restore stability and security, because we and the people here are very tired.”
Malak A Tantesh is a reporter based in Gaza
Jason Burke is the International security correspondent of The Guardian
