Gaza awaits ceasefire, fearing last-minute catastrophes

Following the Israeli cabinet's approval of a temporary ceasefire and hostage release agreement with Hamas, civilians in the Gaza Strip are anxiously awaiting the pause in the relentless 15-month war. Since the agreement was reached in principle on Wednesday evening, Israel has conducted intense airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, reportedly killing at least 113 people, according to Hamas's civil defense agency in Gaza.

The agreement was finalized on Friday afternoon and is set to take effect on Sunday, meaning that people in Gaza have just over 24 hours to wait for a respite. "Time is passing slower than ever," said Dr. Abdallah Shabir, an emergency physician at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City. "You can lose your life at any moment," he said, "sitting at home, walking in the street—without any warning."

Dr. Shabir learned of the ceasefire agreement while on duty Wednesday night. He said there was a brief moment of joy, but less than an hour later, the announcement was replaced by a wave of airstrikes that sent a flood of dead and wounded to the Baptist Hospital. All staff were called in. "The situation is worse than anything we have ever seen," Dr. Shabir said in a phone call from the hospital. "Severe injuries, severe burns. And of course, many deaths."

Among those killed on Thursday was a colleague, Hala Abu Ahmed, a 27-year-old internal medicine specialist who was described by two of her colleagues at the Baptist as a dedicated, promising young doctor and a kind person. Dr. Ahmad Eliwah, head of the emergency department, said she had worked tirelessly under extreme pressure for 15 consecutive months since the start of the war, only to be killed after the ceasefire agreement was reached.

Among the millions of displaced people in the Gaza Strip, many were waiting on Friday for the moment they could return to their homes for the first time since the war began. Many will find their homes reduced to bombed-out ruins. "My house is completely destroyed, the whole building is gone," said Sabreen Doshan, 45, who owned a small street shop in Gaza City and lived in a residential building. Doshan said she has lost 17 distant relatives since the war began. She was preparing to travel from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where she has been living in a tent, to the ruins of her home.

"Even if I have to pitch a tent on the rubble, it doesn't matter, because I will be home," she said. "There is no place that can satisfy me now except home." The devastation in the Gaza Strip is immense. According to a recent analysis by the UN Satellite Center, as of December, 69% of buildings and 68% of roads have been destroyed or damaged. According to the Hamas-run health ministry, approximately 46,700 people have been killed.

Israel began its destruction of 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 is tempered by the scale of death and destruction. "God is my witness, it's a complicated 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'm happy that the bloodshed will stop, but we are living in misery."

On Friday afternoon, the ceasefire agreement was undergoing final approval through the Israeli political system. It paves the way for the release of the first three hostages as early as Sunday, in exchange for approximately 95 Palestinian prisoners. However, the exchange, which is to take place 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, director of communications for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

"If it is implemented successfully, the challenges ahead are still immense. The vast majority of shelters are overcrowded. Many people are just living out in the open, or in makeshift structures. They lack basic needs like warm clothing. I wouldn't call these living conditions, they are not conditions fit for human beings." In Gaza on Friday, some were focused on Sunday, and whether they would get a respite before the agreement broke down. "We are afraid of any change, any movement," said Khalil Nateel, 30, whose house in Jabalia, in the northernmost part of the Gaza Strip, was destroyed early in the war. "The news is playing," Nateel said from a shelter in central Gaza. "We are watching and waiting."