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 were moved to southern Gaza.” Undress to start over.’
The teenager said she called her displaced best friend and discussed “what we’re going to do when the war is over”, adding that she would start by trying to “make up for every moment I missed seeing her”.
“But after I called her, there was a huge bombshell in my area. It reminded me of (the last ceasefire and hostage release agreement) in November 2023. There were huge bombs and rockets (before it started). I am very afraid that this will happen again.”
“In the last hours of this war, I don’t want to lose any of my family members. I don’t want a ceasefire for a year or five months. I want a long-term ceasefire – for the rest of us lives.”
Asma Taye, a young graduate who took shelter with her family in her grandparents’ house in the western Gaza City neighborhood of al-Nasra, also said people had 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 survive after the announcement.”
Asmaa is from Jabalia, the largest urban refugee camp in Gaza, whose residents have been forced to evacuate their homes several times by the Israeli military.
When the Israeli military launched a new ground offensive on Jabalia in October, Asmaa’s family was forced to flee once again.
Fierce fighting has been going on in Jabaliya ever since. Asma said in December that her entire territory had been “destroyed”.
