GAZA: For the first time in more than a year, war-displaced Gazan Ammar Barbakh awoke on Monday feeling refreshed after a night spent in a tent, but free of Zionist attacks. “This is the first time I sleep comfortably and I’m not afraid,” Barbakh, 35, told AFP a day after a fragile truce in the Zionist-Hamas war took hold. “We didn’t hear any shelling, and we weren’t afraid,” he said.
Barbakh, from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, pitched a tent on the rubble of his former home. Despite the destruction, he was thrilled to have had a peaceful sleep. “It’s a beautiful feeling, and I hope the ceasefire continues”, said Barbakh.
Thousands of displaced Palestinians like him have headed back to their home areas across the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire came into effect on Sunday. For Samer Daloul, “it was the first night we slept in peace” since the war’s first truce, a one-week pause in November 2023 about two months after fighting erupted. “The sound of fighter jets and drones was present all night, but the air strikes stopped,” said Daloul.
The newfound calm has given him a chance to reflect on the grave losses he suffered during the war, including the deaths of 32 of his relatives, he said. “I’m happy and sad at the same time,” said Daloul, expressing his hope that the initial 42-truce would hold and give way to a permanent ceasefire. In the tiny coastal territory, practically everyone knows at least one person from the tens of thousand.
