Gaza hopes for ceasefire for fear of last-minute catastrophes

Civilians in Gaza eagerly awaited a pause Friday after 15 relentless months of war, as Israel’s cabinet met in Jerusalem to finalize a temporary ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

While they waited, Israel attacked the strip with airstrikes, killing at least 113 people since the deal was agreed in principle on Wednesday night, according to the Hamas-run civil defense agency in Gaza.

The agreement, closed on Friday afternoon, will take effect on Sunday, leaving just over 24 more hours for the people of Gaza to wait for a respite.

“Time is moving slower than ever,” said Dr. Abdallah Shabir, 27, an emergency doctor at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City. “At any moment you can lose your life,” he said. “Sitting at home, walking down the street… there’s no warning.”

Dr Shabir was on duty at the hospital on Wednesday night when news of the ceasefire agreement arrived. There was a brief moment of joy, he said, but less than an hour separated the announcement from the beginning of a wave of airstrikes that sent an avalanche of dead and wounded to the Baptist.

All staff members were summoned. “It was the worst we’ve ever seen,” Dr. Shabir said. “Serious injuries, serious burns. Many dead, of course.”

Among the dead brought in Thursday was a colleague, Hala Abu Ahmed, a 27-year-old internal medicine specialist whom two Baptist colleagues described as a devoted and promising young doctor and a kind person.

She had worked tirelessly and under extreme pressure for 15 months since the war began, said Dr. Ahmad Eliwah, head of the emergency department, and was killed after the ceasefire was agreed.

Among the millions of displaced people in the strip, many were waiting Friday for the moment to be able to return to their homes for the first time since the war began. Many will find a bombed-out wasteland instead of their home.

“My house is completely destroyed, the building is gone,” said Sabreen Doshan, 45, who owned a street kiosk and lived in a residential block in Gaza City.

Doshan had lost 17 members of his family since the war began, he said. He was about to leave Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where he has been living in a tent, for the ruins of his home.

“Even if I have to put my tent on the rubble, everything will be fine, because I will be home,” he said. “Now, apart from home, no other place can satisfy me.”

The destruction of the Gaza Strip is immense. According to a recent analysis by the United Nations Satellite Center, as of December 69% of all structures and 68% of roads have been destroyed or damaged. According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, some 46,700 people have died.

Israel set out to destroy Hamas in Gaza in October 2023, after the group attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

For Gazans, the joy of the long-awaited ceasefire has been tempered by the magnitude of the death and destruction. “My God, it’s a mixed feeling,” said Wael Muhammad, a freelance journalist who lives in a refugee camp in central Gaza.

“From one moment to the next, from joy to pain,” he said. “I am happy that the flow of blood has stopped, but we live in misery.”

On Friday afternoon, the ceasefire agreement was making its way through the Israeli political system for final approval. It paves the way for an initial group of three hostages to leave on Sunday in exchange for some 95 Palestinian prisoners.

But the exchange, which will unfold over the next six weeks, is fraught with the possibility of collapse.

“The biggest challenge is whether the ceasefire will be implemented successfully,” said Juliette Touma, communications director for the U.N. refugee agency, UNRWA.

“If so, the challenge ahead remains absolutely enormous. The vast majority of shelters are overcrowded. Many simply live outdoors or in makeshift structures. They lack basic needs like warm clothing. I wouldn’t call these “living conditions are not conditions suitable for human beings.”

In Gaza on Friday, some were focused on Sunday and whether they would get that respite without the deal falling apart.

“We are afraid of any change, any movement,” said Khalil Nateel, 30, whose home in Jabalia, on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, was destroyed at the start of the war.

“The news is now available,” said Nateel, from a shelter in central Gaza. “We are watching and waiting.”