When the shooting stopped, Palestinians burst into the streets, some in celebration, others to visit the graves of relatives.
“I feel like at last I found some water to drink after getting lost in the desert for 15 months. I feel alive again,” Aya, a displaced woman from Gaza City who has been sheltering in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip for over a year, told Reuters via a chat app.
Relatives and friends of people killed and abducted by Hamas gathered in Tel Aviv as the hostage exchange was taking place.Credit: AP
In the north of the territory, where some of the most intense Israeli airstrikes and battles with the militants took place, people picked their way on narrow roads through a devastated landscape of rubble and twisted metal.
Armed Hamas fighters drove through the southern city of Khan Younis with crowds cheering and chanting. Hamas policemen, dressed in blue police uniforms, deployed in some areas after months of trying to keep out of sight to avoid Israeli strikes.
People who had gathered to cheer the fighters chanted “Greetings to Al-Qassam Brigades” – the armed wing of Hamas.
“All the resistance factions are staying in spite of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu,” one fighter said.
Little remains of many areas of Gaza. Displaced Palestinians are pictured here leaving Khan Younis to return to their homes in Rafah.Credit: AP
“This is a ceasefire, a full and comprehensive one God willing, and there will be no return to war in spite of him.”
The ceasefire agreement follows months of on-off negotiations brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, and comes into effect on the eve of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who had said there would be “hell to pay” unless hostages were freed before he took office.
There is no detailed plan in place to govern Gaza after the war, much less rebuild it. Any return of Hamas to control in Gaza will test the commitment of Israel, which has said it will resume the war unless the militant group which has run the enclave since 2007 is fully dismantled.
Aid trucks wait at the Rafah crossing to go into Gaza.Credit: Getty Images
Hardline Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir quit the cabinet on Sunday over the ceasefire, though his party said it would not try to bring down Netanyahu’s government. Another prominent hardliner, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, remained in the government for now but said he would quit if the war ended without Hamas completely destroyed.
Trump’s national security adviser-designate, Mike Waltz, said that if Hamas reneged on the agreement, the United States would support Israel “in doing what it has to do.” He provided no qualification in terms of what that would entail.
“Hamas will never govern Gaza,” he said. “That is completely unacceptable.”
Shattered streets
The streets in shattered Gaza City in the north of the territory were already busy with groups of people waving the Palestinian flag and filming the scenes on their mobile phones. Several carts loaded with household possessions travelled down a thoroughfare scattered with rubble and debris.
Some displaced Palestinians returned to Rafah on Sunday after the ceasefire took hold.Credit: AP
Gaza City resident Ahmed Abu Ayham, 40, sheltering with his family in Khan Younis, said the scene of destruction in his home city was “dreadful”, adding that while the ceasefire may have spared lives it was no time for celebrations.
“We are in pain, deep pain and it is time that we hug one another and cry,” he said.
Long lines of trucks carrying fuel and aid supplies queued up at border crossings in the hours before the ceasefire was due to take effect. The World Food Program said they began to cross on Sunday morning.
The deal requires 600 truckloads of aid to be allowed into Gaza every day of the initial six-week ceasefire, including 50 carrying fuel. Half of the 600 aid trucks would be delivered to Gaza’s north, where experts have warned famine is imminent.
The war between Israel and Hamas began after the militants stormed Israeli towns and villages on October 7, 2023, killing 1200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Israeli attacks that reduced the Gaza Strip to a wasteland, according to medical officials in the enclave. Nearly the entire 2.3 million people who live there are homeless. Around 400 Israeli soldiers have also died.
AP, Reuters
