“Our feeling is a mixture of joy, hope, sadness and fear of disappointment,” answers Raneen Samir Ali Al-Zraei, a 23-year-old artist and graphic designer from Gaza City, when asked about how the youth are living. which still has some issues left to close. “We feel lost, with an uncertain future, we don’t know where to start,” says Al-Zraei. And he adds: “As I write to you, my heart hurts.” He realizes that he is at a crossroads. On the one hand, he feels deep hope and at the same time, he is afraid “that that hope will be disappointed.” “My experience during the war has been terrible; It seems like we’ve gone back 1,000 years in life, like we’re living a primitive life, cooking food over a fire and lacking many supplies. We feel lost and mentally scattered,” he says.
After more than 15 months of devastating war in Gaza, in which the Strip’s Ministry of Health assures that 46,788 people have died – at least a hundred each day, on average, although there are thousands of missing people who could raise that toll – Israel’s attacks, young people in Gaza reflect on what will happen next. The feeling among the Gazans consulted is that it is not a good agreement and Israel may fail to fulfill its part and bomb again once it recovers the hostages, but for now, they have received the news with relief. Many took to the streets to celebrate.
“I am very concerned that the pact will not last,” Al-Zraei confesses via WhatsApp, from the refugee camp in Deir al Balah where he now lives due to the conflict. She says she is very scared because “in the moments before the agreement comes into force, the occupation carries out random bombings, and I am afraid of losing a person dear to me.” Since the agreement was announced, Israel has intensified its bombing and has killed at least 73 people throughout the Strip in just 20 hours.
Al-Zraei says there are many young people who want to stay in the Strip and “rebuild the country from scratch,” while others, like her, “want to leave and travel when the war is over.” He is looking for a way to finance a master’s degree in art somewhere in the world and start an exhibition with his work, “that speaks about the suffering we experience.” “I am doing everything I can to find a full scholarship to study art in another country that will allow me to travel.”
A graduate of Fine Arts from Al Aqsa University in Gaza City, Al-Zraei participated in multiple exhibitions—local and international—before the war, exhibiting photographs, sculptures and paintings of her authorship. “I loved to paint and spent most of my days in my studio, which was bombed.” She lost her works and materials and was injured in the attack. “October 17, 2023, the worst day of my life,” he says, also remembering “the smell of ash and the screams of the survivors. That day, the occupation destroyed my dream.”
Marwa (24 years old): “I only think about returning to my house, even if it is to the ruins”
Marwa, a nurse, 24 years old, says from a tent in Al Mawasi, in the south-central area of Gaza, that she cried when she heard the news. “Because I can’t take it anymore, we can’t take it anymore, we are exhausted. I have survived almost 500 days of war. There were times when I didn’t think I would make it. I feel relieved about that. Now I only think about returning to my home, in Gaza, even if it is to the ruins and beginning to recover part of the life that has been taken from us.”
Dozens of this girl’s neighbors in the displaced persons camp were overcome with joy rather than fear of the bombs, which continued to sound all night, and they went out into the streets, hugged, sang and danced. The news that there were deaths in various parts of the Strip in Israeli attacks after the announcement of a truce agreement makes them think that until Sunday, when it comes into force, there will be deaths and incessant bombings and they have to continue taking care of themselves. maximum.
Hossam Anwar (26 years old): “I will leave here, without a doubt”
“Do I have to feel something in particular?” asks Hossam Anwar, 26, from the Nuseirat refugee camp, when asked how he experiences the announcement of the agreement. “I don’t know how I feel,” he confesses, and says that anyone would say the same after “dying 468 times,” referring to the days that this latest episode of the conflict between Israel and Hamas has been going on. He has only one thing clear: “I am leaving here, without a doubt.”
He hopes that the pact will last and that the Strip will never experience a similar situation again, but he is skeptical: “I don’t think it will last long. My family is very worried, my friends are scared about what’s coming,” and he insists: “but I really don’t know what I feel.” He remembers his life before the war: he graduated with honors in accounting from the Palestinian University and soon after found a “very fun” job in the marketing area of a local company. He is also passionate about photography, which is why he combined numbers with images and went so far as to exhibit his photos in Canada, in collaboration with a student platform at Concordia University in Montreal. “Everything was very beautiful.”
“But now I live among rubble in the Nuseirat camp,” in the center of the Strip. “I lost my house, a large part of my family and, worst of all, my best friend, Muhannad Khaled, whose death I still cannot understand.” He was quiet and introverted, he went almost unnoticed, but Anwar remembers “perfectly” his laugh, which he loved. He still has some of his belongings, such as his wallet and one of his t-shirts.
“I don’t care who governs Gaza next, and it’s not relevant either, I only care about the people who are here, who have suffered a lot and who need this massacre to stop,” he says.
Bachar (30 years old): “I want to be part of the survivors. “You have to continue taking care of yourself until Sunday.”
Bachar (who prefers not to give his full name), is 30 years old and is a journalist. From Khan Yunis, the one who found out about the truce says: “I wanted to take off my vest and helmet, but I didn’t. Last night, another journalist colleague died. I want to be part of the survivors. “You have to continue taking care of yourself until Sunday.”
He is optimistic about the future of the pact, and says he believes that “the ceasefire will succeed and the bombs and genocide being committed in Gaza will stop. I need to believe it.”
Fatma Al Ashqar (23 years old): “I have the right to live in peace”
After the announcement of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Fatma Al Ashqar only thinks about living in peace again. “I just want to return to the arms of my father, my mother, my brothers, and see them all in peace,” he says from a displaced persons camp in Khan Yunis.
He believes that “the war will end,” he says. “The bloodshed and genocide will end, and food and water will be available again.” After the war she dreams of finishing her degree in English literature, which she studied at Al Aqsa University, and becoming an English teacher. “I was very excited about the idea of graduating and wearing a gown,” he says.
He also wants to return to his home, in northern Gaza, although he says he will be alone with its ruins, since it was bombed by Israel. He refers to Hamas with disgust, says that he is not interested in politics and hopes that whoever governs the Strip in the future “will not bring corruption or death.”
“I have the right to live in peace,” he says.
Reema Mahmoud (36 years old): “I imagine Gaza being the most beautiful place on the planet”
Like Al-Zraei, Reema Mahmoud, a 36-year-old filmmaker, enjoyed her profession in the Strip. “I had a quiet life,” he recalls. He left at 7 in the morning to film scenes for a short film he was shooting in Gaza City and planned to release on October 15, 2023. “But now the city is under Israeli occupation and I am many kilometers away from there. “, he says from the refugee camp where he lives, in Rafah, at the southern end of the enclave.
He says that when they announced the truce between Hamas and Israel, he thanked God for giving him life again and for stopping “the genocide of innocent people in Gaza.” Although he is also concerned that the pact will fail, he dares to think of a “democratic and fair” Gaza, in which “there are elections and the best government is chosen.” He does not even rule out presenting himself at some point in the future to occupy a political position, such as the Ministry of Culture.
He assures that he refuses to “store memories of the war and displacement in my memory” because he does not want to remember what he experienced inside the refugee camps, “because of the intensity of the pain.” “Can you imagine your entire life in a cloth tent?” he asks and later says: “I feel bad every time I think about that.” On the contrary, he prefers to think optimistically about the future: “I imagine Gaza being the most beautiful place on the planet.”
He admits that the truce has given him hope again and he clings to the idea of continuing to make films in Gaza, of which he assures: “It is the heart that beats in my body.” So, unlike Al-Zraei, he does not think about leaving. At least not permanently, because she does want to travel for a while and then resume her work as a producer. “I want to revive cinema in the Strip through my lens,” he says and argues that “Gaza is fertile ground for cinema. “I hope to continue filming and I even think about participating in international festivals.”
Talal: “I can’t be happy after this nightmare. After this war there will come another one.”
Talal (who asks to appear only by his own name), is a high school teacher, currently a refugee in the south: “I think the ceasefire is real and will last for a while, but I can’t be happy after this nightmare. I know that after this war another one will come. And now I am also very concerned about what may happen in the West Bank, where violence has multiplied, but about which not much news is published.”
“The news of the truce was a relief for my family and the people who live near us. It was also something unreal. We dreamed of it happening for months and when the confirmation came, we couldn’t believe it.”
“People are depressed and traumatized, but many took to the streets to celebrate. The question now is what will happen after Sunday. The first thing is to get the bombs to stop, but it will be very hard for people to recover emotionally from this and to recover part of the life they had. “If calm returns, I think many people will return to their homes, even if they are just ruins, and set up shop there.”
