When Arij al-Farra heard that Hamas had partially agreed to Donald Trump’s plan and that the US president had ordered Israel to stop bombing Gaza, the first thing she felt was a flicker of hope. The second thing she felt was an explosion. An Israeli aircraft had dropped a bomb close to her tent in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
Though it was luck that saved Farra from death, she took the attack as a bad omen for the prospects for peace in Gaza.
“I feel like we are in a trap. Whether Hamas agrees or not, we will not be safe … There has been no reduction in the intensity of attacks here, no Israeli aircraft has withdrawn from the sky,” said the 23-year-old English teacher who had been displaced to Khan Younis.
Farra was not alone in her scepticism of Friday’s news that Hamas’s partial acceptance of the US president’s plan would lead to an end to the nearly two-year war in Gaza.
Hamas’s agreement to release all hostages and surrender power was hailed by Trump and much of the international community as a step towards peace on Friday.
But the residents of Gaza have been here before.
Trump has on several occasions promised a ceasefire was days away, only for negotiations to suddenly collapse. Israel broke a six-week ceasefire at the beginning of the year after it unilaterally decided to resume fighting in March and besiege the territory, creating famine in parts of Gaza, according to the world’s leading authority on food crises.
“I have little hope in this deal, because every time we are on the verge of a ceasefire, something happens that changes the course of plans,” Farra explained.
Still, others could not help but hope that this could finally lead to an end to the war that has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, wounded about 170,000 more and left most of Gaza destroyed.
“I am hopeful and expect that this time the deal will be more serious than previous ones,” said Abu Faris, a 43-year-old video editor living in northern Gaza. “A breakthrough in the ceasefire deal would be a good thing. It would meet the demands of the Palestinian people and give civilians in northern Gaza a sense of hope and security.”
If fully implemented, Trump’s plan to end the fighting in Gaza would be deeply unfavourable to Hamas and other Palestinian factions.
Dr Ashraf Maghari, a 48-year-old professor at the Islamic University, said: “There is a sense of mistrust because this plan was drafted by American hands and the war itself has continued with clear American support … The plan clearly serves Israel’s interests and does not include any meaningful provisions for the Palestinians.”
But to most exhausted residents of Gaza, neither politics nor the survival of Hamas were the priority.
Faris said: “My priority now is to end the war completely. If Hamas has to sacrifice itself to achieve that, then it must bear the consequences of its actions.”
He had already lost many of his close relatives to the war, and had been displaced four times, each time returning to find his home more damaged. He could lose much more if fighting did not end soon, as he was in northern Gaza, where Israeli bombardment is intense.
A UN commission of inquiry, several human rights organisations and the world’s leading association of genocide scholars have concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Israel denies the accusation and says it has only acted in self-defence. It initially launched the war on Gaza after Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in an attack on 7 October 2023.
Neither Faris nor Farra believed that Israel would negotiate an end to the war in good faith, nor that it would lead to self-determination for Palestinians. For Farra, in particular, the prospect of disarmament was a worrying one.
Nonetheless, if it led to an end to the almost relentless bombing of their homes, both said the deal would be worth it.
“Ending the war for me is not about silencing our rights. It is about taking a deep breath, reorganising ourselves, our lives, our priorities and our thoughts,” Farra said.
