Gazans Shed Tears of Joy, Disbelief at News of Ceasefire Deal

Palestinians react to news of a ceasefire agreement with Israel, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, 15 January 2025. (EPA)
Palestinians react to news of a ceasefire agreement with Israel, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, 15 January 2025. (EPA)
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Gazans Shed Tears of Joy, Disbelief at News of Ceasefire Deal

Palestinians react to news of a ceasefire agreement with Israel, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, 15 January 2025. (EPA)
Palestinians react to news of a ceasefire agreement with Israel, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, 15 January 2025. (EPA)

Palestinians burst into celebration across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday at news of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with some shedding tears of joy and others whistling and clapping and chanting "God is greatest".

"I am happy, yes, I am crying, but those are tears of joy," said Ghada, a mother of five displaced from her home in Gaza City during the 15-month-old conflict.

"We are being reborn, with every hour of delay Israel conducted a new massacre, I hope it is all getting over now," she told Reuters via a chat app from a shelter in Deir al-Balah town in central Gaza.

Youths beat tambourines, blew horns and danced in the street in Khan Younis in the southern part of the enclave minutes after hearing news of the agreement struck in the Qatari capital Doha. The deal outlines a six-week initial ceasefire phase and includes the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

The accord also provides for the release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian detainees held by Israel, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters.

For some, delight was mingled with sorrow.

Ahmed Dahman, 25, said the first thing he would do when the deal goes into effect is to recover the body of his father, who was killed in an airstrike on the family's house last year, and "give him a proper burial."

'A DAY OF HAPPINESS AND SADNESS'

"I feel a mixture of happiness because lives are being saved and blood is being stopped," said Dahman, who like Ghada was displaced from Gaza City and lives in Deir al-Balah.

"But I am also worried about the post-war shock of what we will see in the streets, our destroyed homes, my father whose body is still under the rubble."

His mother, Bushra, said that while the ceasefire wouldn't bring her husband back, "at least it may save other lives."

"I will cry, like never before. This brutal war didn't give us time to cry," said the tearful mother, speaking to Reuters by a chat app.

Iman Al-Qouqa, who lives with her family in a nearby tent, was still in disbelief.

"This is a day of happiness, and sadness, a shock and joy, but certainly it is a day we all must cry and cry long because of what we all lost. We did not lose friends, relatives, and homes only, we lost our city, Israel sent us back in history because of its brutal war," she told Reuters.

"It is time the world comes back into Gaza, focuses on Gaza, and rebuilds it," said Qouqa.

Israeli troops invaded Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen broke through security barriers and burst into Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and abducting more than 250 foreign and Israeli hostages. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 46,000 people, according to Gaza health ministry figures, and left the coastal enclave a wasteland, with many thousands living in makeshift shelters.



Crowds Cheer, Families Hug as Palestinian Prisoners Released

Palestinian former inmates of the Ofer military prison are welcomed upon arriving to Ramallah after being released as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, 25 January 2025. (EPA)
Palestinian former inmates of the Ofer military prison are welcomed upon arriving to Ramallah after being released as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, 25 January 2025. (EPA)
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Crowds Cheer, Families Hug as Palestinian Prisoners Released

Palestinian former inmates of the Ofer military prison are welcomed upon arriving to Ramallah after being released as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, 25 January 2025. (EPA)
Palestinian former inmates of the Ofer military prison are welcomed upon arriving to Ramallah after being released as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, 25 January 2025. (EPA)

Azzam al-Shallalta dropped to his knees and wept at his mother's feet as he arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah with other Palestinian prisoners released under the Gaza ceasefire on Saturday.

A jubilant crowd carried Shallalta on their shoulders from the bus that brought him from jail, the freed prisoner still wearing his grey prison tracksuit.

"My situation was heartbreaking, truly heartbreaking. We pray to God to free all our brothers we've left behind," he told the crowd, his head shaved and his face pale and thin under a long red beard.

"I can't describe the feeling -- just hearing the news that I would be released was overwhelming", he said while shaking hands with well-wishers.

Around him Palestinians cheered and waved the national flag, as they welcomed dozens of prisoners who arrived in buses.

Hundreds waited in the local sports center where the prisoners were dropped off for a short health checkup, while hundreds more watched on from the surrounding hills as fireworks went off.

Israel said it released 200 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday in exchange for four Israeli women soldiers held in Gaza since Hamas's October 2023 attack which sparked the war.

Not all of the prisoners were bused to Ramallah. Sixteen were taken to Gaza, while 70 were sent via Egypt into exile in Algeria, Tunisia or Türkiye.

A total of 121 of the prisoners released had been serving life sentences.

- So 'much love' -

Tareq Yahya, another freed prisoner, spoke with emotion as he stepped off the bus into the crowd.

"It's amazing how much love our people have shown us, how they've stood by us and expressed their solidarity," the 31-year-old from the northern West Bank city of Jenin said.

Looking through the crowd, Yahya searched for relatives, finding none.

"It seems, based on the situation in Jenin, they weren't able to make it," he said, referring to an ongoing Israeli military operation in the city.

"I'll try to find them, though."

Thinking of the other prisoners who will be released in the coming weeks in exchange for Gaza hostages, Yahya said the ceasefire's guarantors "need to set strong conditions to prevent the beatings, humiliation and mistreatment the jailers have inflicted on us in these last days before our release".

Maisa Abu Bakr, 33, came early with her family to see her uncle Yasser Abu Bakr, whose name was on the list of those to be released this week.

She said they avidly followed the news "on Telegram and TV, and we were ready, wearing our (best) clothes, waiting for the time to get out and come here".

Yasser Abu Bakr had been in jail since 2002 serving multiple life sentences.

"When the lists were published, we saw his name and we were surprised because we didn't expect that he would be freed."

- 'Left hoping' -

Others were not so lucky, like the family of Sadiqi al-Zaro, 65, who made the time-consuming journey from the southern West Bank city of Hebron through multiple Israeli checkpoints to Ramallah.

Zaro's nephew Tareq told AFP the family had come after receiving a phone call from an Israeli intelligence officer who said he would be among those released on Saturday.

"We were shocked when the official lists were announced and his name wasn't included," he said.

The procedures for clearing prisoners for release are opaque and the final list was not released until a few hours before the buses arrived.

"There have been a lot of issues since the beginning of this prisoner release process. It's been difficult for families to get clear confirmation," Tareq al-Zaro said, his cousins nodding in agreement.

He said he was still hoping for his uncle's release after 24 years in prison.

"We're leaving this in God's hands. We came here based on a phone call, and God willing, he'll be released based on an official announcement".