Tareq S. Hajjaj
Mondoweiss / January 18, 2025
Since the ceasefire was announced, Israel has continued to bomb Gaza, and Israeli ministers have promised to sabotage the deal. Fear and scepticism have overtaken celebrations in Gaza, as millions wait anxiously for the deal to take effect on Sunday.
This week in Gaza was a week full of anticipation, fear, and scepticism.
Since the beginning of the week, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were anxiously awaiting the announcement of a ceasefire. The anticipation was palpable.
As a stream of reports continued to flood local and international media of an imminent deal, displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip began calling their relatives and friends in the north, checking on their homes, sending their best wishes, and ending their phone calls by saying “we are coming soon.”
Then on Wednesday night, Gaza erupted in celebration. After 476 days of genocide, a ceasefire deal had finally been struck. In the displacement camps, people stayed in the streets into the early hours of Thursday morning, singing victory slogans, and celebrating the moment they had been waiting more than 16 months for.
In front of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, amidst a sea of displaced people who came out in joy at the news of a ceasefire, stood 44-year-old Rula Saqallah. She told Mondoweiss that she and her family are preparing their return to the al-Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City as soon as the ceasefire takes effect on Sunday. Even though her house was bombed at the beginning of the war, she said she cannot wait to return to the ruins of her home.
“I will kiss the ground of my home when I arrive. I prayed for a long time that we would survive the war and return to our home, even if it is ruined and destroyed. It is our home and our land,” Saqallah told Mondoweiss. “We will rebuild everything that Israel destroyed, we will rebuild our country as soon as the war stops and the daily death ends.”
Saqallah, like all other displaced Palestinians who were forced out of north Gaza into the south, knows that most of northern Gaza has been reduced to rubble. But nevertheless, she said she will focus on the joy that bloodshed will finally stop.
Wedad Najd, 47, a displaced mother from Gaza City living in Deir al-Balah, expresses her mixed feelings of joy and pain. As she celebrates the ceasefire, she reflects on all she has lost during the genocide.
“When I arrive in Gaza City, I will bury my son first, then I will check the rubble of our house and see if we can live in it,” Najd said, adding that though she felt immense relief and happiness at the news of a ceasefire, she cannot overcome the sadness in her heart.
“My two brothers were killed in Gaza City, and their families and two other brothers were arrested, and we will return to a house made of rubble, put up a tent, and live there; this is what we will do if we can return to our homes.”
“On a day like this, we remember all those who stood by us and thank them, and we affirm that the Palestinian resistance is on top of the world,” Najd said.
Fear and anticipation
Walking through the streets of Gaza in the days since the ceasefire, the feelings of joy and optimism are still alive, as millions eagerly await a return to their homes. But for many, the celebrations were quickly cut short.
In the hours after the ceasefire was declared, the Israeli army continued its intensive bombardment of various neighbourhoods and areas in the Gaza Strip, with residents saying the night of the ceasefire was one of the most violent nights experienced during the war.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 81 martyrs were brought into hospitals in the 24 hours since the ceasefire was announced, and that dozens of martyrs were still under the rubble and on the streets. The ministry said Israel carried out eight massacres after the ceasefire was declared, bombing the homes of residents in Gaza City, the tents for displaced people in the south, displacement centers and shelters, and UNRWA schools.
The Israeli bombardment after the ceasefire announcement was a reminder to many that until the ceasefire takes effect on Sunday, the people of Gaza are still in danger. As celebrations continued in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Osama Nabhan stayed inside his tent, gathering his children around him. He said he was just trying to stay safe until he could return back to his home in Gaza City. Only then, he said, can he feel real joy when his feet touch the soil of Gaza City.
“We know that this enemy is treacherous and does not fulfil its promises, and these days, until the ceasefire is implemented, it will commit bloody crimes and kill more violently and randomly than ever before,” Nabhan told Mondoweiss.
Nabhan said that upon hearing the news of the ceasefire, he tried not to rejoice too much for fear that this joy would be spoiled if Israel did not follow through on the ceasefire deal- fears that have been exacerbated as Israel’s vote to ratify the ceasefire have faced delays and intense push back from Israeli officials. Even amidst his scepticism, he said he can’t stop thinking about returning home.
“For many moments, I thought that we would never return to our homes in Gaza City. This was like a dream to me,” he said. “But the will of the Palestinian people who did not surrender to Israel’s plans, and the bravery of the resistance in confronting it and defending their land and people with their lives until the last moment restored my hope of returning to my home,” said Nabhan.
Nabhan describes the hours until Sunday, when he hopes a ceasefire will take effect and people can finally return to their homes, as nerve wracking and days that will be filled with fear and anxiety.
“We just want to stay safe during these days until we can witness those great moments we have long awaited. We want to return to our homes safely and see a real end to this war.”
Tareq S. Hajjaj is the Mondoweiss Gaza Correspondent, and a member of the Palestinian Writers Union
