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Just as Palestinians in Gaza regained a sense of hope on Wednesday after news of a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, deadly Israeli airstrikes descended on the people, turning celebration into anxiety.
Families wept as they saw the bodies of their loved ones wrapped in white shrouds and brought to Khan Younis outside Nasser Hospital on Friday – their names written in blue ink in Arabic on each one.
Jomaa Abdel-Aal said two of his nephews – Mohammed Asaad Jarghoun, 28, and Mohammed Mahmoud Jarghoun, 27 – were killed in a tent in central Khan Younis at around 2am on Friday.
“Every day we say goodbye to martyrs. We are used to saying goodbye to our loved ones,” Abdel-Aal told CBC News cameraman Mohamed El Saife on Friday.
“May God reunite us with them in (the afterlife),” he said. – Life has become an unbearable hell.
Other mourners gathered to pray over the slain as the women wept, holding each other close.
At least 117 people have been killed since Wednesday
The Israeli security cabinet is on Friday recommended approval agreement on a cease-fire in Gaza and the return of hostages, ahead of a full cabinet meeting that would give final ratification to the agreement, which is due to officially come into force on Sunday.
While the final details were still being formalized, Israeli warplanes continued intense strikes across the Gaza Strip in the days following Wednesday’s announcement.
At least 117 Palestinians, including 32 women and 30 children, have been killed since then and 266 others injured, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza.
Palestinians gathered Friday at Nasser Hospital near Khan Younis in southern Gaza to pray over the bodies of loved ones killed in Israeli airstrikes just days before the ceasefire is expected to take effect.
Abdel Aal, who lost two children to airstrikes in the 15-month war, said he did not hope for an end to the killings in Gaza.
“The Palestinian people have not been able to enjoy a single moment in the past 75 years while death and destruction have been occurring in these lands,” he said.
The Israeli army has not commented on the latest strikes.
The journalist was killed in the designated humanitarian zone
Earlier this week, just hours after Palestinians took to the streets to celebrate news of Wednesday’s deal, Ismail Al-Shiah’s brother, Ahmed Al-Shiah — a journalist in Gaza — was killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a charity kitchen to the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The area is marked as a humanitarian safe zone.
“He distributed food to orphans and worked with a charity,” Al-Shiah told CBC News on Thursday.
“This is a loss for Palestine and a loss for the country.”
ua video circulating online, a young Palestinian man was seen crouching over the body of his sister who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in central Gaza early Thursday morning.
“Hala, get up, the war is over, we can go south,” he says while shaking the girl’s body. “Hala, we can leave Gaza and travel outside the country, stand up!”
Hope quickly turns to anxiety
Saeed Awad, a paramedic in Gaza, said Israeli bombardment had particularly intensified since Wednesday in central and northern Gaza.
“All of this of course destroys people’s happiness,” Awad told CBC News on Thursday. “And that affects the happiness that was there (Wednesday).”
Awad said there was a strike in Ard al Mufti in central Gaza on Thursday, but the Palestinian Civil Defense and ambulances were unable to reach the area.
– The house was on fire and no one could reach it.
Israel’s acceptance of the cease-fire agreement with Hamas will not be official until it is approved by the country’s security cabinet and government. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed the vote, accusing Hamas of making last-minute demands and undoing deals.
Tamer Abu Shaaban’s voice broke as he stood over the tiny body of his young niece wrapped in a white shroud on the tiled floor of a Gaza morgue on Thursday. She was hit in the back by projectile shrapnel while playing in the yard of the school where the family had taken shelter, he said.
“Is this the truce they’re talking about? What did this young girl, this child, do to deserve this? What did she do to deserve this? Is she fighting you, Israel?” he asked.
Ceasefire Agreement appeared on Wednesday after the mediation of Qatar, Egypt and the USA. The agreement provides for a six-week initial ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces, as well as the release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners.
If successful, the ceasefire would halt fighting between Hamas and Israeli forces that has flattened much of Gaza and killed more than 46,800 people, mostly women and children, according to the country’s health ministry. It is not said how many militants were dead.
Israel says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The war began when Hamas-led militants invaded Israel in a surprise attack on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, including several Canadian citizens, and kidnapping around 250.
Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, and the Israeli military believes about a third to half of them are dead.
