Gaza is waiting for a ceasefire, fearing last-minute catastrophes

Gaza civilians eagerly awaited a break after 15 months of relentless war on Friday as the Israeli cabinet met in Jerusalem to finalize a temporary ceasefire deal with Hamas.

As they waited, Israel hit the strip with airstrikes, killing at least 113 people since the deal was agreed in principle on Wednesday night, according to Hamas’s Gaza civil defense agency.

The deal, which was finalized on Friday evening, will come into effect on Sunday, giving the people of Gaza just over 24 more hours to rest.

“Time goes slower than ever,” said Dr. Abdallah Shabir, a 27-year-old emergency physician at Baptist Hospital in Gaza City. “At any moment you can lose your life,” he said. “Sitting at home, walking on the street – there is no warning.”

Dr. Shabir was on a shift at the hospital on Wednesday night when news of the ceasefire deal broke. It was a brief moment of joy, he said, but less than an hour separated the announcement from the start of the airstrikes that sent a flood of dead and wounded into the Baptist.

All the workers were called. “It was as bad as we’ve ever seen it,” Dr. Shabir said. “Severe bruises, severe burns. Many dead, of course.”

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

Dr. Ahmad Eliwah, head of the emergency department, said he had worked continuously and under extreme pressure for 15 months since the start of the war, and was killed after a ceasefire was agreed.

Among the millions of displaced people on the list, many were waiting on Friday to return home for the first time since the war began. Many will find a bombed-out desert instead of their home.

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

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

“Even if I have to put my tent on top of the rubble, it’ll be fine because I’ll be home,” he said. “I can’t be satisfied anywhere now except at home.”

The destruction of the Gaza Strip is horrific. According to a recent study by the United Nations Satellite Center, 69% of all structures and 68% of roads are destroyed or damaged in December. According to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, around 46,700 people have died.

Israel launched its crackdown on Hamas in Gaza in October 2023 after the group attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

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

“From one moment to another, from joy to pain,” he said. “I am happy that the bloodshed will stop, but we live in misery.”

As of Friday evening, the cease-fire agreement was making its way through the Israeli political system for final approval. It opens the way for the release of the initial group of three hostages from Sunday morning, in exchange for some 95 Palestinian prisoners.

But the exchange that will play out over the next six weeks is fraught with the possibility of a collapse.

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

“Well, the challenge ahead remains absolutely huge. The vast majority of shelters are overcrowded. Many are simply living outside, or in makeshift structures. They lack basic necessities like warm clothing. I wouldn’t call these living conditions; they’re not humane. conditions”.

In Gaza on Friday, some were focused on Sunday, and whether they would make it to that break without breaking the deal.

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

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