DEIR AL-BALAH: Crowds of Gazans chanted and embraced on Wednesday as news spread that a ceasefire deal had been reached to end more than 15 months of misery.

After a US official first revealed the agreement, Israel cautioned that several points “remain unresolved” that it hoped would be resolved.

But celebrations were already underway in Gaza, where journalists saw crowds of people hugging and taking photos to mark the announcement.

“I can’t believe that this nightmare of more than a year is finally coming to an end. We have lost so many people, we’ve lost everything,” said Randa Sameeh, a 45-year-old displaced from Gaza City to Nuseirat camp, in the centre of the besieged territory.

“We need a lot of rest. As soon as the truce begins, I will go to the cemetery to visit my brother and family members. We buried them in Deir Al Balah cemetery without proper graves. We will build them new graves and write their names on them.”

Outside Deir Al Balah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where so many of the casualties have been taken, hundreds of Palestinians gathered to chant, sing and wave flags.

At one point, a member of the crowd and a journalist in body armour were raised on people’s shoulders to conduct an interview above the mass of elated Gazans. As an ambulance squeezed through the crowd to reach the hospital, smiling men and women alike chanted Allahu Akbar and waved the Palestinian flag.

Children, some looking confused by the commotion, gathered outside the hospital too, milling between adults and watching as they gave interviews to the waiting media. A gaggle of young boys in the centre of the crowd led a popular pro-resistance chant as adults filmed the moment on their phones..

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2025