We Asked People in Gaza What They Think of the Ceasefire: “Just a Declaration, Not Reality”

Even though Israeli airstrikes killed at least people in Gaza on Tuesday the bulk of them civilians of them children U S President Donald Trump the self-proclaimed deliverer of Peace in the Middle East maintains that the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas still holds Among Palestinians in Gaza who survived Tuesday s attacks however there is a growing belief that the ceasefire agreement exists only on paper providing diplomatic cover that allows Israel to continue to kill The Intercept questioned residents in Gaza a great number of of them students living in Gaza City whether they presumed the ceasefire still held Fifty explained no Four announced the ceasefire was still in place but it was fragile and at jeopardy of falling apart Six expressed hope that the ceasefire would remain Residents described nights filled with explosions and mornings shadowed by tension as Gaza braced itself for what may come next Related Netanyahu Is Blowing Up the Gaza Ceasefire and Trump Is the One Losing Face I panicked and my body shook violently disclosed -year-old Aya Nasser a university scholar who recalled Tuesday s attacks to The Intercept She was in bed when just after midnight she heard an Israeli missile explode meters from her home A second followed shortly after Nasser revealed she later learned that the Israeli strike had hit a nearby home and killed nine people from a single family a grandmother a father a daughter-in-law four children and two grandchildren Nasser stated this was the third time an Israeli attack had targeted her neighborhood in the Al-Nuseirat camp since the ceasefire went into effect She did not think it was still in place The fear is indescribable she declared anticipating further attacks The occupation targets whoever it wants stopping and resuming the genocide every limited days as if playing with our lives When Israel released its strikes on Tuesday Hala also had been shopping at a area for her upcoming wedding She rushed back to her home in Nuseirat and eventually fell asleep to relative calm But she was jolted awake when a missile struck their neighbor s home which caught on fire Hours later she received word that another strike had killed her fianc s cousin along with his wife and children Only their -year-old son survived For now Hala disclosed the wedding has been postponed while their neighborhood remains under threat of future attacks There is no ceasefire she declared The occupation targets whoever it wants stopping and resuming the genocide every scant days as if playing with our lives Israel claimed its attacks on Tuesday had targeted senior Hamas fighters However the vast number of children killed and wounded in the strikes stated a different story Morten Rostrup a physician working with Doctors Without Borders at al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza City noted after Israel s airstrikes he treated various wounded children in the hospital s urgency room There is no doubt this is an attack on civilians he noted Do we really call this a ceasefire A Doctors Without Borders spokesperson disclosed their teams had treated patients wounded from the attacks with later dying in restoration Tuesday s bombing forced -year-old educator Esraa and her small children out of their home in Al-Zawaida which had already been damaged by previous attacks In the middle of the night she and her children went to stay in a tent with her parents and other relatives She announced they spent the evening with no access to water My baby clung to me tightly the whole time crying she recalled They keep bombing and killing people and then declare that the so-called ceasefire is still going on A -year-old writer and trainee also named Esraa called the ceasefire just a declaration not reality The bombs on Tuesday woke her up late at night while in her home in Nuseirat triggering memories of the previous two years of war They keep bombing and killing people and then declare that the so-called ceasefire is still going on she reported How so while lots of people are still losing family members Even after the Israeli military declared it resumed the ceasefire on Wednesday morning it carried out another airstrike in Gaza s Beit Lahiya area in the evening killing two more people In addition to its military barrages Israel continues to restrict the amount of humanitarian aid to enter the Strip choking its depleted markets leaving food unaffordable for a great number of In the first scant weeks of the previous ceasefire deal brokered in January Israel repeatedly attacked Gaza before shattering the deal totally by killing more than Palestinians in a single day What -year-old apprentice Ali Skaik fears majority he noted is that the situation in Gaza would mirror the ceasefire in Lebanon where despite having a supposed peace deal with Hezbollah in place for almost a year Israel has continued to attack and has killed more than civilians After the ceasefire Skaik moved into his grandfather s home in eastern Gaza City to the Al-Zaytouna neighborhood which sits near the perimeter of Israel s yellow line The Israeli military maintains control of portions of land on the other side Every night for the past week Skaik commented he s heard explosions stretching from p m until the morning For that reason I never really felt that there was a complete ceasefire in place he declared Related Trump s Gaza Ceasefire Deal Is Already Failing Palestinians The Gazans killed Tuesday represent roughly half of the Palestinians Israel has killed since the ceasefire went into effect on October Throughout the genocide Israel has killed more than Palestinians in Gaza according to official numbers from the Gaza Fitness Ministry though the true count is likely much higher As countless as others also remain missing whether killed in airstrikes and buried beneath rubble abducted by Israeli military forces or disappeared under other circumstances Bodour a university pupil revealed he has grown accustomed to living through Israel s ceasefire violations and has learned to mistrust Israel s speeches and pursuit of peace finding strange comfort in invariably expecting the worst from Netanyahu s executive What ceasefire are we talking about Bodour disclosed He laughed when requested the question about whether there was still a ceasefire in Gaza The scattered bodies The destroyed houses The orphaned children What ceasefire are we talking about The scattered bodies The destroyed houses The orphaned children Israel reportedly notified the Trump administration before conducting its strikes on Tuesday and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly accused Hamas of failing to return the remains of deceased Israeli hostages and firing on Israeli soldiers in southern Gaza Hamas has denied responsibility for the attacks As bombs began to rain down on Gaza Trump on a trip to Japan stated reporters inside Air Force One that he supported Israel s strikes The Israelis hit back and they should hit back Trump mentioned blaming Hamas for an Israeli soldier s death At the same time he insisted that nothing s going to jeopardize the ceasefire Vice President JD Vance minimized Tuesday s bombings as little skirmishes here and there And Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously predicted there would be bumps along the road but we have to make it work Those bumps are Israel gets to violate the ceasefire wherever it sees fit explained Tariq Kenney-Shawa a U S plan fellow at Al-Shabaka who is Palestinian and whose family is from Gaza As long as it doesn t return to that full-blown full-on assault or a full-on blockade Trump has much to gain from continuing to tell the residents that the ceasefire is holding even while Israel kills dozens of Palestinians in Gaza Throughout his second term Trump has positioned himself as a so-called peacemaker and his inner circle including his son-in-law and ceasefire negotiating association member Jared Kushner have voiced interest in maturation projects in Gaza to reap a profit in the wake of Israel s destruction Trump has further expressed interest in leveraging the ceasefire in an attempt to finish the Abraham Accords which would normalize Israel s relationships with Arab countries and fast-track Trump s agenda goals and personal financial interests For Trump and for the Israelis what matters is the appearance of a ceasefire announced Khaled Elgindy a visiting scholar at Georgetown University s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies who helped negotiate deals between Palestinian leadership and Israel in the past The ceasefire plan in numerous methods was Trump s way for providing diplomatic cover for Israel which had been under increasing pressure from the international district amid images of famine and genocide to allow it to continue its military control over the Strip Kenney-Shawa mentioned Read our complete coverage Israel s War on Gaza I think none of us should be surprised that Israel has continued developing the ceasefire Kenney-Shawa explained It very much still fits into the Trump administration s bigger picture because as long as they can kind of say that there is a quote-unquote ceasefire in effect as long as they can say At least it s better than before that enables the U S and the rest of the international area to let up on the pressure on Israel and to return to business as usual Israel has also spent the ceasefire demolishing structures within parts of Gaza it continues to occupy Kenney-Shawa revealed such tactics are meant to make the Strip even more uninhabitable to ultimately force Palestinians out of Gaza the ultimate goal of Israel s campaign For Trump and for the Israelis what matters is the appearance of a ceasefire The morning after Tuesday s bombings Tasneem a -year-old homemaker in Gaza accused Trump of lying asking Where is the ceasefire they talk about Reported an English trainer in Gaza disclosed that even with the ceasefire in place he has felt constant exhaustion and misery given the ongoing attacks He dismissed the term ceasefire as just a media trick There is still recognition in Gaza that the frequency and scale of Israel s attacks since the ceasefire have decreased from the two previous years of genocide Tuesday s bombings however returned things back to the pre-ceasefire average daily death toll of shattering illusions of peace The uncertainty is crippling for a large number of Mervat a -year-old homemaker announced she feared the resumed attacks would again displace her and her family and that they would again face famine conditions She mentioned as long as Israel s occupation continues there is no safety Merely knowing that the agreement is still in place offers a psychological reassurance noted Aseel a -year-old university aspirant in Gaza Yet news of its violation or the return of genocide imposes an unimaginable weight and traps you in an endless cycle of worry Believers in Islam are encouraged to maintain hope and trust in Allah s mercy and multiple people who spoke to The Intercept stated they had hope that Allah would restore the ceasefire but as of now they don t see it as in place Hend another university pupil reported she d lost trust in the agreement Though she felt the ground shake during Tuesday s bombings she explained she still has hope for peace and that we can feel safe Such hope began to fade after Tuesday s attacks reported Marah a -year-old English literature learner at Islamic University of Gaza She disclosed there can only be peace in Gaza with the removal of Israeli occupation in the territory When the ceasefire went into effect she revealed I tried to reclaim even a small part of life before October but everything collapsed again in an instant Fear returned along with the sounds of bombing and the smell of death The post We Required People in Gaza What They Think of the Ceasefire Just a Declaration Not Reality appeared first on The Intercept