As the truce takes effect, Gazans and Israelis express jubilation mixed with uncertainty

As a truce took effect Sunday in Gaza, potentially ending the longest and bloodiest war in a century of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, two men used the same metaphor to describe how they felt.

“The weight has been lifted off my chest,” said Ziad Obaid, a government employee in Gaza who was displaced several times during the war. “We survived.”

“The rock on my heart has been removed,” said Dov Weisglass, a former Israeli politician. “We want to see the hostages in their homes, period.”

Both men also had a ‘but’.

Mr. Obaid has not seen his damaged home in northern Gaza for more than a year. He wondered how bad the damage was? Who will rebuild destroyed Gaza? Will Hamas still run it?

Weisglass expressed concern about the conditions of the hostages who are scheduled to be gradually released over the next few weeks from the region’s wetlands. He expressed his dissatisfaction with exchanging them for hundreds of Palestinian detainees, many of whom are serving life sentences for attacks on Israelis. He said: “There is comfort wrapped in caution, fears and anxiety.”

It was an apt summation of the mood on both sides of the divide on Sunday, with Israelis and Palestinians expressing feelings of jubilation mixed with doubt.

For the Palestinians, the truce aims to provide at least six weeks without strikes on Gaza. This provides an opportunity for Gazans to take tentative first steps toward reconstruction; finding relatives still buried under the rubble; And reconciliation with the killing of more than 45,000 people, both civilians and fighters, whose bodies have already been counted by the health authorities in Gaza. Scenes of joy were broadcast on Sunday from across the region, with rescue workers throwing confetti; Crowds danced and cheered amid the rubble. Journalists symbolically removed their protective vests.

For the Israelis, the deal allows for the gradual release of at least 33 hostages captured during the Hamas raid on Israel on October 7, 2023 — an attack that killed up to 1,200 people and sparked a devastating 15-month Israeli response. For the hostages released alive, it means freedom after 470 days of captivity. For Israelis generally, many of whom suffer from a form of survivor’s guilt, this provides a qualified catharsis. To embody this mood, friends of one of the first three hostages released on Sunday were photographed jumping for joy after hearing the news of her release.

But the details of the agreement between Israel and Hamas mean that both sides still face a great deal of uncertainty about how the next six weeks might play out, let alone whether the initial arrangement will later become permanent. Even the first phase began hours later than scheduled on Sunday morning, amid disagreements over the hostages who would be released in the afternoon. At that time, according to the authorities in Gaza, Israeli raids killed and injured more people.

Currently, Israel also still controls large swaths of Gaza and has not yet agreed to a full withdrawal, preventing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, like Mr. Obaid, from returning to their homes in northern Gaza. It remains to be seen whether Israeli forces will leave completely.

“What happens after 42 days?” Mr. Weisglass said. “Nobody knows.”

Palestinians remain uncertain about the fate of several thousand Gazans who were held incommunicado during the war and who may not be released during future exchanges. Rima Diab, a housewife in central Gaza, is still unable to locate her husband, a horse trainer, who she said was taken for interrogation in Israel in December 2023 and she has not heard from him since.

“I feel relieved that the bloodshed is coming to an end, but my heart hurts,” Ms. Diab said. “His absence is unimaginable.”

Across the border, Israeli columnists struck a sombre tone, with one, Ben Caspit, describing a mixture of joy and sadness, “inextricably intertwined.” He wrote that Sunday was a day of reckoning, not a day of celebration, and stressed that Israel will now need to come to terms with the extent of its failure on October 7, 2023.

“Let us be silent for a moment, let us examine our conscience, let us suffer the catastrophe, let us think of those who murdered, murdered, burned, raped and kidnapped,” Caspit wrote in the right-wing newspaper Maariv. daily.

The Israelis already fear for the fate of about 65 hostages who may not be released from Gaza if the agreement collapses after six weeks. Likewise, there were widespread fears that the 33 hostages who were due to be released within the next 42 days might be emotionally or physically scarred, or even dead. Israelis generally expressed regret about the possibility of obtaining the freedom of hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian detainees, including some Convicted of major terrorist attacks And so are the teens who were never charged.

The Palestinians consider the detainees who will be released soon as freedom fighters and political prisoners. For Israelis, it would be a psychological blow to see “this stream of killers released,” Weisglass said.

Videos showing Hamas fighters returning victorious from their hideouts came as a shock to Israelis, who had hoped the war would completely destroy the group’s military capabilities. For many Gazans, this was a sight to celebrate, but for others, it served as a reminder of the continuing uncertainty about future governance in Gaza.

Mr. Obaid works for the Palestinian Authority, which lost power to Hamas in Gaza 18 years ago, but still employs some government employees in Gaza, including Mr. Obaid, and now hopes to play a greater role in post-war Gaza. Mr. Obaid said he had been in contact in recent days with Authority leaders in the West Bank to plan clean-up and possible reconstruction operations in Gaza. He said it is unclear whether these efforts will be possible with Hamas remaining in power for the next six weeks, and perhaps even beyond that.

It is also unclear when Israel will allow Mr. Obaid, who fled to Egypt last year after being displaced three times in Gaza, to return home.

But Mr. Obaid said that all of this could be addressed in time.

“Right now, I can breathe oxygen again,” he said.

Bilal Shabir He contributed to the preparation of reports from Deir al-Balah and the Gaza Strip Aaron Puckerman From Jerusalem.