The Palestinians killed waiting for the Gaza ceasefire to come into force

There is a huge environment of happiness, there is euphoria that the killing will stop, the genocide will stop, that we can live in safety and peace, not seeing body parts and dead bodies,

he says by telephone from Khan Younis

Without the 7th of October, the war would not have happened,

he says

Even though fighting hasn’t stopped, the suffering hasn’t ended,

he says

We endured this entire war, facing the harshest conditions of displacement and bombardment,

Hanan said

I saw Sama and Adly lying on the ground, and my father bleeding and unconscious on the cart,

Yasmin said

Hasn’t the Israeli army had enough of our blood and the atrocities they committed for 15 months?”

Hanan asked

The blast felt like it hit my heart,

Hanan said

I left my heart at home, in the north. I’ve been whispering to my heart every day, ‘I will come back home,

said teacher Asma Mustafa, from Gaza City, who now lives with her two daughters in Nuseirat refugee camp

I am feeling so many things,

said Nasser Qudeimat, 34, an accountant from Deir al-Balah whose home was destroyed; he and his family have lived in a tent since December last year

I’m overjoyed Emily is coming home. I hope it goes OK, we are not there yet and I won’t believe it until I see her,

she said, in the hours before the Israeli military confirmed

I know it sounds crazy, but I know she’s there. I can feel her. I know she’s alive and she will come back,

Gonen said at the time

It’s not over until every single hostage comes home. We must continue to be their voices,

she added

I lost everything: my car, my house, my job, my money. I don’t eat well, I don’t sleep well, I don’t drink clean water, I can hardly find food … I can’t believe I have survived. I feel like I have written a line in the history of Palestine,

the 38-year-old said

We will only find out if this is a good idea as time goes by,

he said

You are talking about people whose past has been erased, and every horizon of the near future has been wiped away,

said Essam Raja, 38, who was forced to flee his home in northern Gaza

Right now, we live a life of misery in every sense of the word,

he told The Independent

And so the suffering isn’t just physical. Every single child in Gaza has been deeply psychologically scarred by the unrelenting nature of this conflict. Children have witnessed things that no child should ever witness,

she continued

People everywhere, from the far south to the north, are clutching at the faint straw of hope as soon as they hear news of a truce,

she told The Independent

We need the operational environment inside Gaza to considerably improve, which is going to be challenging,

she said,

Everything we have has faced massive destruction and damage,

he said