"I thought that joy would keep me awake after the ceasefire in Gaza was confirmed in the hours before dawn on October 10, but instead, tears did. I opened my phone to check on my people, only to find sorrow spreading everywhere. After two years of endless war, what poured out of many of us was not joy - it was the grief we had buried too long."
"That painful experience was enough to break our spirits, making the celebration of the current ceasefire muted, cautious, and heavy with grief. By the time the news of the ceasefire came, the Israeli military had killed 67,806 people in Gaza and left 170,066 more wounded and 9,500 missing. It had erased entire cities, leaving them uninhabitable and destroying every trace of life."
"Living in that tent, I was trying to hold on to the hope of graduating - finishing what I had started despite it all. I studied through power outages and internet blackouts, inside a tent that barely shielded me from the cold, just to prove to myself that the war hadn't defeated me yet. It was a daily struggle between the will to live and the feeling of helplessness."
A ceasefire in Gaza was confirmed in the early hours of October 10, but the prevailing mood was grief rather than celebration. Two years of continuous war left communities emotionally shattered and cautious after previous truces ended. Military operations resulted in 67,806 killed, 170,066 wounded, and 9,500 missing, while entire cities were rendered uninhabitable. Many people fled south and lived in tents in Khan Younis after displacement on September 23. Survivors attempted to continue routines such as studying despite power outages, internet blackouts, cold, and inadequate shelter. Daily life became a struggle between surviving and feeling helpless.
Read at Truthout
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