DEIR ALBALA, Gaza Strip (AP) – Many Palestinians in Gaza, who had been eager for an end to bloodshed, displacement and destruction, were relieved to hear news of an agreement between Israel and Hamas. their pause A devastating two-year war. But it was a mixture of pain from a staggering loss and concern about what would happen next.
“Hearing the news of the ceasefire made us happy,” said Ibrahim Shrab from Khan Yunis. “I pray to God for continued happiness for us and for the Palestinian people, and for us to return to our homes despite the pain and suffering,” he added, speaking in the Mwasi district, which is crowded with tents sheltering Palestinians forced to flee their homes.
Displaced Palestinians gather on a coastal road near Wadi Gaza in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday, October 9, 2025, as they attempt to return to Gaza City following the announcement that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a peace plan that would suspend fighting. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Nevin Cudi said he felt the greatest sense of relief since then. The war broke out two years ago. She added that she would be even happier when she could go home.
“We’re staying on the streets.”
Israel launches in response to attack on Gaza Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused massive destruction, displacement, and suffering in Gaza. war It also caused famine In part of the territory.
In Deir al-Balah, some children greeted the news with whistles, applause and chants of “Allahu Akbar,” which means “God is great” in Arabic.
Mahmoud Wadi said he received the news with “great happiness and indescribable emotions.”
Others in the Gaza Strip had mixed feelings.
A displaced Palestinian man waits next to his bicycle on a coastal road near Wadi Gaza in the central Gaza Strip as he prepares to return to Gaza City following the announcement that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a peace plan that would suspend fighting, Thursday, October 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
“I’m both happy and unhappy,” Mohammad Al Falah said. “We have lost many people, loved ones and friends. We have lost relatives and homes, which are more than stones and physical buildings,” he said.
He said he couldn’t help but wonder what the next day would be like–or where to start Pick up the debris. “The situation is very difficult.”
However, he said he will overcome the challenges ahead just as he has in the past.
Taghreed al-Jabari, who was expelled from Khan Yunis, also shared mixed feelings.
“We don’t know whether to feel happy or sad,” she said, lamenting the killings and losses of the past two years, including children who missed two full years of school.
“Our sons and daughters were not educated. An entire generation was lost. Not just one generation, but two generations. May God make up for it for us,” she said.
Mohammed al-Nashar of Gaza City said people were “very alarmed and afraid of what is going to happen.”
He feared the ceasefire could be broken at any time, adding that Israeli attacks were persistent in areas where the military was still active.
Some were skeptical that Israel would implement the agreement, but they were hopeful.
Explosions were seen in northern Gaza on Thursday morning as Israeli military offensives continued. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack, but said earlier in the day that it had begun preparations for implementing the ceasefire and that its forces would move to a “coordinated line of deployment.”
Israeli soldiers move near the Israel-Gaza border, seen from southern Israel, Thursday, October 9, 2025, following the announcement that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a peace plan to suspend fighting. (AP Photo/Ariel Shalit)
Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement a pause in their war The remaining 48 hostages, about 20 of whom are believed to be alive, were released in exchange for several hundred Palestinian prisoners.
Uncertainty remains about some of the thornier aspects of Plan advanced by US President Donald Trump – whether and how Hamas will disarm, who will rule Gaza, etc. But both countries appear closer to an end to the war than they have in recent months.
In the Gaza Strip, Most of the territory is in ruinsPalestinians have longed for a breakthrough. Thousands of people fleeing recent Israeli ground attacks have set up makeshift tents along the coast in the central part of the territory, sometimes using blankets for shelter.
In the 2023 attack on Israel, Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Most of the hostages were released due to ceasefires and other agreements.
The Gaza Health Ministry announced that the death toll among Palestinians had exceeded 67,000. The ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters, said about half of the dead were women and children, part of the government run by Hamas. The United Nations and many independent experts consider that figure to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.
“We are a people who have suffered the injustice of the (Israeli) occupation and the injustice of war,” said Samir Moamah, an expelled from Rafah. “Education stopped. People’s lives stopped.”
He said he prays to God to end the war and bloodshed.
“The occupation has taken us back to the Stone Age,” he says. “We ask God to complete this happiness and restore the people to their previous state.”
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Pham reported from Cairo. Toka Ezziddin in Cairo contributed to this report.
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