While Palestinians in Gaza regained a sense of hope on Wednesday after the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, deadly Israeli airstrikes fell on the population, transforming celebration into anguish.
Families wept as they saw the bodies of their loved ones wrapped in white shrouds and carried to Khan Younis, outside Nasser Hospital on Friday – their names written in blue ink in Arabic on each of them.
Jomaa Abdel-Aal said two of her nephews – Mohammed Asaad Jarghoun, 28, and Mohammed Mahmoud Jarghoun, 27 – were killed in a tent in central Khan Younis around 2 a.m. on Friday.
“Every day we say goodbye to the martyrs. We have become accustomed to saying goodbye to our loved ones,” Abdel-Aal told CBC News videographer 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 for those killed as women cried, clinging to each other.
At least 117 people killed since Wednesday
Israel’s security cabinet on Friday recommended approving the ceasefire deal and return of hostages to Gaza, ahead of a full cabinet meeting that would give final ratification to the agreement which is expected to officially enter into force Sunday.
While final details were still being finalized, Israeli military aircraft continued their intense strikes on the Gaza Strip in the days following Wednesday’s announcement.
At least 117 Palestinians, including 32 women and 30 children, have since been killed and 266 others injured, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza.
Palestinians gathered at Nasser Hospital near Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Friday to pray over the bodies of their loved ones killed in Israeli airstrikes, just days before a ceasefire takes effect. -fire.
Abdel Aal, who lost two children in airstrikes during the 15-month war, said he had no hope of an end to the killings in Gaza.
“The Palestinian people have not been able to rejoice for even a moment over the past 75 years while death and destruction have taken place in these countries,” he said.
The Israeli army has made no comment on the latest strikes.
Journalist killed in designated humanitarian zone
Earlier this week, just hours after Palestinians took to the streets to celebrate the announcement of a deal reached on Wednesday, Ismail Al-Shiah’s brother Ahmed Al-Shiah – a journalist in Gaza – was killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a charity soup kitchen in Gaza. the Al-Mawasi region, west of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. The area has been designated as humanitarian security zone.
“He distributed food to orphans and worked with [the] charity,” Al-Shiah told CBC News on Thursday.
“It’s a loss for Palestine and a loss for the country.”
In a video Widely circulated online, a young Palestinian man is seen crouching over the body of his sister who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in central Gaza City on Thursday morning.
“Hala, get up, the war is over, we can go south,” he said, shaking the girl’s body. “Hala, we can leave Gaza and travel out of the country, get up!”
Hope quickly turns into anxiety
Saeed Awad, a Gaza relief worker, said Israeli bombardments have particularly intensified since Wednesday in central and northern Gaza.
“Of course, all of this ruins people’s happiness,” Awad told CBC News on Thursday. “And this affects the happiness that was there [Wednesday]”.
Awad said there was a strike in Ard al Mufti, central Gaza, on Thursday, but Palestinian Civil Defense and ambulances were unable to reach the area.
“The house was on fire and no one could get to it.”
Israel’s acceptance of the ceasefire 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 delayed the vote, accusing Hamas of making last-minute demands and reneging on agreements.
Tamer Abu Shaaban’s voice cracked as he stood Thursday over the small body of his young niece wrapped in a white shroud on the tiled floor of a Gaza City morgue. She was hit in the back by shrapnel from a missile shell while playing in the playground of a school where her family was sheltering, he said.
“Is this the truce they are talking about? What did this girl, this child, do to deserve this? What did she do to deserve this? Is she fighting against you, Israel ?” he asked.
The ceasefire agreement was reached on Wednesday after mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the United States. The agreement provides for an initial six-week ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces, as well as the release of Palestinian hostages and prisoners.
If successful, the ceasefire would end fighting between Hamas and Israeli forces that has razed much of Gaza and killed more than 46,800 people, most of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health. It is not clear how many of the dead were militants.
Israel claims to have killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel in a surprise attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, including several Canadian citizens, and kidnapping about 250.
Around 100 hostages remain in Gaza, and the Israeli military estimates that around a third, if not half, of them are dead.
