As a truce took hold in Gaza on Sunday, potentially ending the century’s longest and deadliest war in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, two men used the same metaphor to describe how they felt.
“The weight on my chest has increased,” said Ziad Obeid, a civil servant from Gaza who was displaced several times during the war. “We survived.”
“The rock that lay on my heart has been removed,” said Dov Weissglas, a former Israeli politician. “We want to see the hostages home, period.”
Both men also had “buts”.
Mr. Obeid has not seen his damaged house in northern Gaza for more than a year. How big is the damage, he wondered? Who will rebuild the decimated Gaza? And will Hamas continue to lead it?
Mr Weissglas was concerned about the conditions of the hostages who would be gradually released over the next few weeks from the territory’s damp quarters. And he grimaced about exchanging them for hundreds of Palestinian detainees, many of whom are serving life sentences for attacks on Israelis. “There is relief,” he said, “wrapped up in caution, fears, and concerns.”
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 should ensure at least six weeks without attacks on Gaza. This offers space for the people of Gaza to take the first tentative steps towards rebuilding; to find relatives still buried in the rubble; and come to terms with the killing of more than 45,000 people, civilians and combatants, whose bodies have already been counted by the Gaza health authorities. Scenes of jubilation were broadcast from across the territory on Sunday, as rescuers threw confetti; crowds danced and sang amid 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 hostages captured during Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel — an attack that killed up to 1,200 people and sparked a devastating 15-month Israeli response. For the hostages released alive, this means freedom after 470 days of captivity. For Israelis in general, many of whom are afflicted with a form of survivor’s guilt, it offers a qualified catharsis. Epitomizing that mood, 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 considerable uncertainty about how the next six weeks will play out, let alone whether the tentative deal will become permanent later on. Even the first phase began hours later on Sunday morning, amid arguments over which hostages would be freed in the afternoon. At that time, according to the Gaza authorities, Israeli attacks killed and wounded even more people.
For now, Israel still controls vast swaths of Gaza and has yet to agree to a full withdrawal, preventing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, like Mr. Obeida, to return to their homes in northern Gaza. It remains to be seen whether Israeli troops will ever leave entirely.
“What happens after 42 days?” said Mr. Weissglas. “No one knows.”
Palestinians also remain unclear about the fate of several thousand Gazans held in solitary confinement during the war and who may not be released during the upcoming exchanges. Reema Diab, a housewife in central Gaza, still cannot locate her husband, a horse trainer, who she said was taken to Israel for questioning in December 2023 and has not been heard from since.
“I feel relieved that the bloodshed is coming to an end, but my heart aches,” Ms Diab said. “His absence is unthinkable.”
On the other side of the border, Israeli columnists had a somber tone, and one of them, Ben Caspit, described a combination of joy and sorrow, “inextricably intertwined.” He wrote that Sunday is a day of reckoning, not celebration, and emphasized that Israel will now have to come to terms with the scale of its failure on October 7, 2023.
“Let’s shut up for a moment, examine our conscience, suffer the disaster, think about those who were killed and killed and burned, raped and kidnapped,” wrote Mr. Caspit in Maariv, a right-wing daily newspaper.
Israelis also already feared for the fate of some 65 hostages who may not be released from Gaza if the deal collapses after six weeks. Similarly, there was widespread fear that the first 33 hostages to be released over the next 42 days could be emotionally or physically damaged, or even dead. And Israelis generally lamented that the freedom of the hostages would be obtained in exchange for Palestinian detainees, including some convicted of major terrorist attacks as well as teenagers who have never been charged.
Palestinians see the soon-to-be-released prisoners as freedom fighters and political prisoners. It will be a psychological blow for Israelis to see “this spate of killers unleashed,” Weissglas said.
Videos of Hamas fighters emerging triumphantly from hiding were also a gut punch 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 lingering uncertainty about the future governance of Gaza.
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 with West Bank leaders in recent days to plan potential clean-up and reconstruction operations in Gaza. It’s unclear, he said, whether those efforts will be possible with Hamas 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 that can be solved in time, said Mr. Obeid.
For now, he said, “I can breathe oxygen again.”
Bilal Shbair contributed reporting from Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, and Aaron Boxerman from Jerusalem.
