Families living in the rain-devastated Gaza Strip describe watching the news of a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon with feelings of relief, hope and, for some, a sense of have been completely abandoned.
Widespread frustration has set in in the central town of Deir el-Balah, where residents are exhausted by nearly 14 months of relentless Israeli assault.
Several people who spoke to Tel Aviv Tribune on Wednesday said that while they were happy that their “brothers in Lebanon had reached a truce,” they were waiting for their own truce.
Gaza residents, they say, endured hundreds of times more than they could handle.
“And us?
Maysaa Khalil, displaced from Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood to Khan Younis in southern Gaza a year ago, said that when she heard the news about her husband, she immediately asked: “What about us?”
“Why not stop both wars together as long as the same side started them: Israel? she asked.
“We are happy for Lebanon, of course,” she added, “but we feel like we have been forgotten.”
Hamedi, from Beit Hanoon in the north, said he was optimistic.
“I think the first steps (of a ceasefire in Gaza) could begin in the next three, maybe four, days,” he said from the rudimentary shelter of a tent in a camp that the UN manages for some of the two million Gazans. displaced people in Deir el-Balah.
His friend Fadi echoed his optimistic mood: “(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu has his victory. He has a ceasefire with Hezbollah. The next stop will be Gaza.
“He can negotiate more easily now,” he said of the faltering peace talks in Cairo and Doha, which took place almost for the duration of the war. “I’m not sure we’ll see progress in the next few days, but maybe in a few weeks.”
Hussein, who works for a humanitarian agency and is from a village in northern Gaza, was more measured.
“I don’t know,” he said. “We never imagined what war would be like. We never imagined how bad it could be. I don’t think we’re ready to guess when this might end.
“It is true that many now hope that a ceasefire in Gaza is possible. However, others feel completely abandoned,” he said of the cessation of operations launched by Hezbollah in support of Gaza.
“Some feel completely alone, as if the world has forgotten them,” he said as conditions in the besieged enclave continue to deteriorate.
“The reality in Gaza is different”
On Wednesday night, as the ceasefire was being finalized, Israeli strikes on a school and neighborhoods in Gaza killed at least 15 people and injured many others.
“Throughout last night, the sounds of Israeli strikes on the central region and various areas of Gaza did not stop. This means that Israel continues its war in Gaza,” said Mohammed Ismail, one of the thousands displaced from northern Gaza to Deir el-Balah.
He added that he feared that the announcement of a ceasefire in Lebanon could signal further escalation in Gaza.
“The reality in Gaza is completely different,” he said. “Israel always wants to implement more plans, and there does not seem to be any real political and international will to stop the war, especially from the United States. »
As temperatures dropped, rain began to fall in Gaza, flooding the fabric tents of displaced people crammed into poorly equipped camps. Others who have been forced from their homes live in schools-turned-shelters, many of which are run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
“You can’t find plastic,” Hussein said, explaining that Israel had prevented its entry into Gaza, saying it could be used for military purposes.
Hussein could not imagine what military application plastic sheeting could have.
“If you can find some, one (sheet) will cost you around 500 shekels ($136). A tent needs three or four sheets of plastic, so families have to use fabric, which offers little or no protection against the cold or rain,” he explained.
In northern Gaza, under siege by Israel since early October, conditions have been described as “apocalyptic” by UN officials.
Excrement in the streets
As almost all of Gaza’s infrastructure was destroyed by Israel in the first six months of its war, displaced people had no choice but to bury their sewage in what is now wasteland tempera.
“You can smell it everywhere,” Hussein said of the feces, which he said now circulate freely on the street.
“Children should play there. It’s incredible.
During a visit to Gaza in mid-November, Netanyahu, who is currently the subject of an international arrest warrant for war crimes, gave no indication that Israel’s war would end. .
“We are destroying (Hamas’) military capabilities in a very impressive way,” he said in a video released after the visit.
He then offered a $5 million reward for the recovery of each of the remaining prisoners held in Gaza, something the Israeli army’s massacre of more than 44,000 people in Gaza has yet to produce.
Among the charges cited in the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare.”