As a truce took hold Sunday in Gaza, potentially ending the longest and deadliest war in a century of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, two men used the same metaphor to describe how they felt.
“The weight in my chest lifted,” said Ziad Obeid, a civil servant from Gaza who was displaced several times during the war. “We survived.”
“The rock lying on my heart was removed,” said Dov Weisglass, a former Israeli politician. “We want to see the hostages home, period.”
Both men also had a but.
Mr. Obeid has not seen his damaged house in northern Gaza for more than a year. How bad was the damage, he wondered? Who will rebuild the destroyed Gaza? And will Hamas continue to rule it?
Mr. Weisglass was concerned about the conditions of the hostages, who were to be released gradually over the next few weeks from the grounds’ dank quarters. And he grimaced about swapping them for hundreds of Palestinian detainees, many of whom are serving life sentences for attacks on Israelis. “There is relief,” he said, “wrapped in caution, fears and concern.”
It was an apt summation of the mood on both sides of the divide on Sunday, as Israelis and Palestinians expressed feelings of elation tinged with doubt.
For the Palestinians, the truce aims to ensure at least six weeks without strikes on Gaza. This offers a window for Gazans to take tentative first steps toward reconstruction; to find relatives still buried in the rubble; and come to terms with the killing of more than 45,000 people, both civilians and combatants, whose bodies have already been counted by Gaza health authorities. Scenes of joy were broadcast Sunday from across the territory as rescue workers threw confetti; the crowds danced and chanted among the ruins; and the journalists symbolically took off their bulletproof vests.
For the Israelis, the deal allows for the gradual release of at least 33 of the hostages taken during the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. – an attack that killed up to 1,200 people and provoked Israel’s devastating 15-month response. For the freed living hostages, this means freedom after 470 days of captivity. For Israelis in general, many of them wracked by some form of survivor’s guilt, it offers a qualified catharsis. In an epitome of that sentiment, friends of one of the first three hostages freed on Sunday were filmed jumping for joy after hearing the news of her freedom.
But the details of the deal between Israel and Hamas mean both sides still face significant uncertainty about how the next six weeks will play out, let alone whether the tentative agreement will later become permanent. Even the first phase began hours behind schedule on Sunday morning, amid disputes over which hostages would be released in the afternoon. During that time, according to Gaza authorities, Israeli strikes have killed and wounded even more people.
For now, Israel also still controls vast swaths of Gaza and has yet to agree to a full withdrawal, preventing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, such as Mr Obeid, from returning to their homes in northern Gaza. It remains to be seen whether Israeli troops will ever leave completely.
“What happens after 42 days?” Mr. Weisglass said. “No one knows.”
The Palestinians also remain unclear about the fate of several thousand Gazans held incommunicado during the war and who may not be released during the upcoming exchanges. Reema Diab, a housewife in central Gaza, still has no way of finding her husband, a horse trainer, who she says was taken to Israel for questioning in December 2023. and has not been heard from since.
“I am relieved that the bloodshed is at an end, but my heart aches,” Ms Diab said. “His absence is unimaginable.”
Across the border, Israeli columnists struck a somber tone, with one, Ben Kaspit, describing a mix of joy and sadness “inextricably intertwined.” He wrote that Sunday was a day of reckoning, not celebration, and stressed that Israel would now have to come to terms with the scale of its failure on October 7, 2023.
“Let us be silent for a moment, let us examine our conscience, let us suffer the calamity, let us think of those who were killed, murdered, burned, raped and kidnapped,” Mr Kaspit wrote in Maariv, a right-wing daily.
Israelis also already feared for the fate of some 65 hostages who may not be freed from Gaza if the deal collapses in six weeks. Likewise, there were widespread fears that the original 33 hostages due to be released over the next 42 days might be emotionally or physically scarred or even dead. And Israelis generally complain that the freedom of the hostages will be obtained in exchange for Palestinian detainees, including some convicted of major terrorist attacks as well as teenagers who have never been charged.
Palestinians view the soon-to-be-released detainees as freedom fighters and political prisoners. It will be a psychological blow for Israelis to see “this stream of killers released,” Mr. Weisglass said.
Videos of Hamas fighters emerging triumphantly from hiding again were a blow to Israelis, who had hoped the war would completely destroy the group’s military capabilities. For many Gazans, it was a sight to be celebrated, but for others it was a reminder of the continued uncertainty over Gaza’s future governance.
Mr Obeid works for the Palestinian Authority, which lost power to Hamas in Gaza 18 years ago but still employs some civil servants from Gaza, including Mr Obeid, and now hopes to play a bigger role in post-war Gaza. Mr Obeid said he had been in contact in recent days with leaders of the West Bank authorities to plan potential clean-up and reconstruction operations in Gaza. It’s unclear, he said, whether those efforts will be possible if Hamas is still in charge for the next six weeks, or perhaps even beyond.
It is also unclear when Israel will allow Mr Obeid, who fled to Egypt last year after being displaced three times in Gaza, to return home.
But all this can be resolved in time, Mr Obeid said.
For now, he said, “I can breathe oxygen again.”
Bilal Shbair contributed reporting from Deir al-Balah, the Gaza Strip and Aaron Boxerman from Jerusalem.
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