Gazans anxiously await news of ceasefire – but with their homes in ruins, few know what will happen next
“I had a lot of plans for the day after the war,” translator Moad Zachary Karut told NBC News in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
“But now,” he said, “I really don't know what to do.”
Like many Palestinians in Gaza on Tuesday, Karut anxiously awaited news on whether a ceasefire deal that would end more than a year of deadly fighting in the enclave would be confirmed, after President Joe Biden said negotiators were “in a On the verge of an armistice.”
“I don't know what's going to happen the day after they stop this war, what that day will look like,” Karout told an NBC News crew on the ground in Gaza on Monday, shortly after Biden made the announcement.
Speaking before leaving office next week, Biden said his administration was “urgently working” to solidify a deal to end deadly fighting in Gaza and release hostages held by Hamas.
The Israeli army's grueling offensive in Gaza has now lasted more than 15 months and resulted in an October 7 terror attack by Hamas that Israeli officials said killed 1,200 people, according to local health authorities. More than 46,500 people died.
Negotiators have made significant progress in recent days trying to reach a truce, officials told NBC News. Both the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration's Middle East envoy Steve Witkopf are credited with pushing forward negotiations that have been stalled for more than a year.
For many in Gaza, including thousands of Palestinians killed and hostages who died in Hamas captivity, any ceasefire now comes too late.
“We lost so many people,” Kalut said. “It's really important to stop this bloodshed.”
Several countries have filed lawsuits against Israel at the International Court of Justice, accusing it of committing genocide in Gaza. Both Israeli and U.S. officials have strongly denied the accusation.
U.S. officials told NBC News that under the current ceasefire proposal, the first hostages held by Hamas would be released 48 hours after the ceasefire is announced and implemented. At the same time, Israeli troops will withdraw from Gaza's densely populated areas to the Israeli border, and much-needed aid is expected to flow into Gaza.
But even after the fighting ends, the enclave will still feel the toll of the war for years to come. Much of Gaza's infrastructure has been destroyed, and while tens of thousands have died, thousands more have suffered life-changing injuries.
Hassan Sharif told an NBC News crew in rubble-surrounded Nuserat that he was unlikely to have much to go back to once the war was over because he had been displaced from Rafah. All that remains now is a collection of massive destruction.”
“I have nothing to do but remain optimistic about the current ceasefire negotiations,” said Sharif, who said he studied at a Palestinian university before the war and had hoped to become a clinical pharmacist.
“The first thing I had to do after the war was to start looking for my life again,” he said. “Reimagining my future.”