Gaza’s Palestinians congratulate Lebanon on ceasefire

While the Palestinians in Gaza expressed congratulated to the Lebanese people for reaching a ceasefire with Israel, they expressed their frustration with the continued genocidal war in the besieged coastal enclave. 

A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon took effect on Wednesday after more than a year of fighting that has killed nearly 4,000 people in Lebanon.

The truce is expected to extend in an initial phase to 60 days, during which the Lebanese army will deploy in the border areas and work to implement UN Resolution 1701, according to one of the provisions of the ceasefire.

“We are happy for our brothers in Lebanon who reached a ceasefire that ends their suffering,” Mohammed Hamada, a Palestinian man displaced in Gaza, told The New Arab. 

But, the 55-year-old father of eight noted, “We are frustrated that we became alone in the conflict and the only country which helped us will stay away from Gaza’s issue […] I am afraid that Israel will get its full green light to kill more and more of us in Gaza.”

“For more than a year, we have been under the burden of war, killing and hunger, and the whole world is watching, without taking any action against Israel,” Hamada added.  

Division helps Israel’s ‘war of extermination’ 

“It is not only the fault of the world, but also our factions in Gaza, including Hamas and Fatah, who are still divided even during the war,” Maria Qasim, a displaced woman, said to TNA. 

Maria fled with her five children from her house in the north of Gaza City of Beit Hanoun to Khan Younis city in the south of Gaza. She lives in a tent that was recently damaged because of the heavy rainfall.  

“Because of the war, the Israeli army killed my husband, destroyed my house and forced us to be homeless without having any hopes of getting a better future. Meanwhile, our leaders do not care about us, and they only care about their political positions,” she said bitterly. 

“I always wonder, where are our leaders, where are the factions? Why does no leader come out and apologise to our people for what happened to them? Why do we have to face everything ourselves and bear all the mistakes? Here, the cold is eating away at our bodies and death is chasing us through hunger and bombardment, in every possible and impossible way,” she added. 

While Samir Ali, a Palestinian man displaced in Khan Younis, believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deliberately sabotaging all ceasefire proposals in Gaza, he also blames Hamas and Fatah.

Their division, Ali argues, “helps Israel continue its war of extermination against the Palestinians”.

“All the world called to end the war, but neither Hamas nor Netanyahu cared about our suffering. They only want to achieve their so-called victory over our bodies and blood,” said Nidal Abu Tarabish, a displaced man in Deir al-Balah. 

“I respect Hezbollah who decided to stop the war and preserve Lebanese blood. However, our leaders [including Hamas and Fatah] are waiting for the new US President Donald Trump to take his office in the White House to decide their new direction,” the 35-year-old man remarked to TNA. 

“They [Palestinian factions] have wasted our national rights by betting on others and other countries without taking any consideration for our humanitarian, political and popular situation. They only want to reap the alleged political gains from the corpses of our children, women and elderly,” he added. 

For its part, Hamas said on Wednesday it was committed to cooperating with any efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, where the militant Islamist group has been battling Israeli forces for more than a year.

In a statement issued after Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon, Hamas also said any ceasefire in Gaza must put an end to the war there and lead to the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian enclave.

Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes continue to pound Gaza, with Palestinian news agency Wafa reporting that 12 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school in Gaza City.