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SvennoJ 10 hours ago
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Main events from Januari 19th

  • Ninety Palestinian prisoners have been freed from Israel’s Ofer military prison as part of the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel that saw three Israeli captives freed from Gaza earlier.
  • Families of the Palestinian prisoners waited for hours for their release, while Israeli forces used tear gas to prevent relatives and well-wishers from gathering near the prison.
  • The World Health Organization has warned that “immense challenges lie ahead to restore the health system” after 15 months of war in Gaza.
  • Hamas’s military spokesperson, Abu Obeida, said his movement is committed to the ceasefire deal, which he said could have been implemented more than a year ago if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not blocked it.
  • The first aid deliveries have entered Gaza as part of the ceasefire deal and 600 trucks of aid are expected to enter the war-ravaged enclave each day under the agreement.
  • The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said aid is entering the Gaza Strip through crossings in the north and south but warned that the needs are “immense”.
  • A Palestinian teenager has been shot and killed during a raid by Israeli forces on the town of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

Palestinians finally sleep without fear of bombs falling on first night of ceasefire in Gaza

For the first night in more than a year, people are going to be sleeping without having the fear that unpredictable bombs are falling on their heads inside their homes or inside their tent camps.

[Early] this morning, [there was] a bit of concern and uncertainty, after there was a bit of a delay in the ceasefire taking effect.

But then at 11.30 in the morning, when [the ceasefire] started taking effect, everyone felt the relief at the much-needed pause in the killing.

And despite all of the concern that happened in the morning, people went on into celebrating and feeling the excitement and the happiness.

[They began] leaving all of their tent sites and going back to the areas where they used to live to check on their homes, on the memories that they left behind.

Unfortunately and sadly enough, they could not find any of the memories that they left behind in their homes. Fifteen months of devastation have turned many areas across the Gaza Strip into a pile of ruins, destruction everywhere, roads unrecognisable, many of the buildings just evaporated as the intense bombing campaign did not stop for a long time.

For all these 15 months, people were not given any respite other than the first temporary truce back in December 2023.

That was the only week that people had one to sleep without hearing the buzz of the drones.

Here, it feels really unusual to see this quiet and calm moment.