Palestinians and Israelis who dare to hope that a Gaza deal is close

Sanabel, who lives with her family in their partially destroyed home, told the BBC’s OS program that everyone in northern Gaza “feels happy, cheerful, optimistic to see their best friends, to see their families who have been displaced to the south of Gaza Strip, to start over”.

The teenager said she called her displaced best friend and talked about “what we would do when the war was over”, adding that she would initially try to “make up for every moment I missed seeing her”.

“But after I called her, there was a huge bomb in my area. It reminded me of (the last ceasefire and hostage release agreement) in November 2023. There were huge bombs and missiles (before it started). I’m really scared that this will happen again.”

“In the last hours of this war, I don’t want to lose a single member of my family. I don’t want a ceasefire for a year or five months. I want a ceasefire for a long time – for the rest of our lives.”

Asmaa Tayeh, a young high school graduate who took refuge with her family in her grandparents’ house in al-Nasr neighborhood in the western part of Gaza, also said that people dared to hope again.

You can never imagine how excited and nervous people are here, she told the BBC. – Everyone is waiting as if they will only survive after the announcement.

Asmaa is from Jabalia, the largest urban refugee camp in Gaza, whose residents have been repeatedly forced to evacuate their homes by the Israeli army.

When the Israeli army launched a new ground offensive in Jabalia in October, Asma’s family was forced to flee once again.

Fierce fighting has been going on in Jabalija since then. In December, Asmaa said her entire area was “wiped out.”