Jan 22, 2025
Joy, relief, deep mourning, and fear. These feelings and more are what people in Gaza are experiencing as the ceasefire begins.
First, I want to talk about the relief—in both senses of the word.
On Sunday, MECA’s Gaza City Field Coordinator Yaseen, and our partner Youth Vision Society, worked all through the night to receive trucks of apples, bananas, and oranges from the World Central Kitchen which we are distributing to families in northern Gaza who have not even seen fresh fruit in many months. When Yaseen called to say the first trucks arrived at 10pm, he was so happy to walk in relative safety to reach the warehouse. He said his wife cried all night in relief that they survived and the ceasefire is in place.
When I spoke to MECA’s Gaza Aid Coordinator Wafaa her voice sounded different. She left her home—one of the few still standing and filled with displaced relatives—without worries to work in a different area of southern Gaza where we just received hygiene kits, blankets, food parcels, and supplies for our community kitchens. Our Water, Sanitation and Hygiene coordinator Amal went out in the streets on the first night to join the celebrations, leaving her kids at home for the first time for something other than work.
My friend Iyad told me, “This is a miracle. I mean it, it’s a miracle. I can’t believe we survived for 471 days. Every day, every hour, every minute of these days could have been the last minute, the last breath in my life or the life of my family.”
More than 2.2 million people in Gaza Strip can at least breathe right now, but the question is for how long. Israel has already violated the ceasefire in Rafah, killing several people, including two children. The genocide is continuing more quietly, as tens of thousands of injured people are fighting for their lives, hundreds of thousands have serious untreated illnesses, and babies and children especially are still vulnerable to the cold and starvation.
The people of Gaza are in shock as they witness the enormous damage to their lives. While many are reuniting with loved ones, some are learning for the first time about others who were killed. Everyone is remembering those they have lost as they see the unimaginable scale of the destruction all around them. Houses, hospitals, schools, streets—almost everything has been destroyed. Right before the ceasefire Wafaa said she was “scared to go outside because I am afraid of the shock. I’m scared to know how many more people I lost. I don’t want to discover the new reality that there is nothing left in the Gaza Strip except the rubble.”
Iyad expressed the same dismay. “I went to Jabalia Refugee Camp in the first few hours of the ceasefire. There is nothing left there. I never saw this kind of destruction. Wherever you look, not a single house is standing. I couldn’t even walk in from the smell and the disturbing visuals. There are no signs of life there. I never saw this in a film or in reality. Honestly, I don’t have the words to describe what I witnessed.”
In the coming days, weeks, and months we will learn a lot more brutal details coming from under the rubble. Every day, they are finding 60 or 70 bodies. At the same time Israel has not stopped killing and capturing Palestinians in Gaza or in the West Bank. Israeli soldiers and settlers are escalating their aggression, especially around and in the Jenin Refugee Camp.
For all of us who are standing in solidarity with Palestine, our work is not done. Our solidarity actions now must demand to make this ceasefire permanent and to ensure that the people of Gaza get what they need to survive and live in dignity in their homeland. Our actions must hold the criminal Israeli state accountable for the massive killing and violence. While it’s time for people in Gaza to finally take a breath, for us outside, it is time to step up and act.
In solidarity,
Zeiad Abbas Shamrouch
Executive Director
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