The Israeli cabinet met in Jerusalem on Friday to finalize a temporary ceasefire with Hamas, which Gaza civilians anxiously await after 15 months of relentless war.

While they waited, Israel carried out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip that have killed at least 113 people since the deal was first agreed in principle on Wednesday night, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Civil Defense agency.

The agreement, finalized on Friday afternoon, will come into effect on Sunday, leaving the people of Gaza with just over 24 hours to breathe.

“Time passes more slowly than ever,” said Dr. Abdallah Shabir, 27, an emergency physician at Gaza City’s Baptist Hospital. “At any time you can lose your life,” he said. “Sitting at home, walking down the street – no warning.”

Dr. Shabir was on duty at the hospital when news of the ceasefire came on Wednesday night. There was a brief moment of joy, he said, but within an hour from the announcement to the start of a wave of airstrikes, the airstrikes inflicted heavy casualties on the Baptist church.

All staff were summoned. “This is the worst we’ve ever seen,” Dr Shabir said. “Severe injuries, severe burns. Of course, a lot of people died.”

Among the dead brought in Thursday was Hala Abu Ahmed, a 27-year-old internal medicine specialist who was described by two Baptist colleagues as a loyal, caring man. A promising young doctor who is also a kind person.

Dr. Ahmed Elliwa, director of the emergency department, said she had worked tirelessly under tremendous pressure for 15 months since the war began and was killed after a ceasefire agreement was reached.

Many of the region’s millions of displaced people waited on Friday for the moment they could return home for the first time since the war began. Many people will find their homes bombed.

“My house is completely destroyed, the buildings are gone,” said Sabreen Doshan, 45, who lives in a residential area in Gaza City and owns a street kiosk.

Doshan has lost 17 family members since the war began, she said. She was preparing to travel from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza to the ruins of her home, where she had been living in a tent.

“It doesn’t matter if I have to put my tent on the rubble because I’ll go home,” she said. “Now there is no place that can satisfy me except home.”

The devastation in Gaza is immense. As of December, 69% of buildings and 68% of roads had been destroyed or damaged, according to a recent analysis by the United Nations Satellite Center. Some 46,700 people were killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Israel began to destroy Hamas in Gaza after Hamas attacked southern Israel in October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

For Gazans, the joy of a long-awaited ceasefire has been tempered by massive death and destruction. “God, it’s a mixed feeling,” said Waal Mohammed, a freelance journalist living in a refugee camp in central Gaza.

“From one moment to another, from pleasure to pain,” he said. “I’m glad the blood flow will stop, but we are living in pain.”

On Friday afternoon, the ceasefire was working its way through the Israeli political system for final approval. That paves the way for the initial group of three hostages to be released from prison as early as Sunday in exchange for some 95 Palestinian prisoners.

But the deal, which will unfold over the next six weeks, is fraught with potential for collapse.

“The biggest challenge is whether the ceasefire can be successfully implemented,” said Juliette Touma, communications director for the U.N. refugee agency UNRWA.

“If so, the challenges ahead are still absolutely huge. The vast majority of shelters are overcrowded. Many people are just living in the open or in makeshift structures. They lack basic needs like warm clothing. I wouldn’t call these living conditions Because they are not suitable for human survival.”

In Gaza on Friday, some were focused on what would happen on Sunday and whether they would get a break if the deal collapsed.

“We are afraid of any change, any movement,” said Khalil Nateel, 30, whose house in Jabaliya, in the far north of the Gaza Strip, was destroyed early in the war.

“The news is on,” Nuttel said from a shelter in central Gaza. “We are watching and waiting.”