War between Israel and Gaza, live | More than one million people have fled Rafah, according to the UN | International

Gazans are frustrated: “Biden is now talking about a ceasefire, but we don’t trust it”

The latest move by US President Joe Biden to present a new ceasefire proposal agreed with Israel that, for the first time, outlines an end to the war in Gaza, has raised little optimism among a demoralized, frustrated Gaza population that has been hit by Israeli fire for more than 240 days. “Biden now says he will impose a ceasefire, but we don’t trust it because he has sat down and negotiated a lot but in the end nothing has come out of it,” Tahrir Zakot, a displaced Gazan woman in the Al Mawasi camp, south of the Strip, told EFE with skepticism.

In these nearly eight months of war in the enclave, only one ceasefire agreement was reached between Hamas and Israel last November, which was extended for a week and which allowed the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners. Since then, especially since last February when negotiations resumed with greater force, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, Gazans have seen the prospect of an end to hostilities in the Strip appear more devastated every day. Israel also promptly wiped out the joy that arose among the Palestinian population on May 6, who took to the streets to celebrate, when Hamas gave its approval to the ceasefire plan that the Israeli government had put in place a few days earlier. Israel argued that the last proposal that the Palestinian Islamist group had joined had been modified and did not include its main demands. A few hours earlier, Israeli tanks had occupied the Palestinian part of the Rafah crossing.

“I hope that the announcement of this new agreement is true because we just want an end to this war and an end to this miserable life,” said Reem Al Agha, another Gazan woman and mother of four children, whose home is also now a tent in the Al Mawasi area. As Paulo Milanesio, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Gaza, has detailed, that area, along with other points in Khan Younis, has been an escape route for many Gazans who have taken refuge in the Egyptian border town. “In Al Mawasi there is no drinking water, no electricity, access to roads is negligible. Many diseases are spreading due to the consumption of salt water and people come to our clinics with diarrhea, gastroenteritis,” said Milanesio, who stresses that it is not a safe place as there has also been Israeli bombing.

“We don’t have any kind of income, my husband was an engineer before the war, but now he has lost his job. I pray every day for this to end,” said Al Aqha. And despite the sadness these Gazan women feel, Zaiko dreams that she will be able to return to Gaza City if the war eventually ends. (EFE)