Thousands of Gazans gathered to celebrate as news spread that a ceasefire deal had been reached between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday night.
The deal is aimed at releasing the Israeli hostages held by the terror group in exchange for an expected 1,000-plus Palestinian security prisoners, and potentially ending more than 15 months of war in the Palestinian enclave sparked by the devastating Hamas-led onslaught in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
AFP journalists in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah and other areas witnessed people gathering in groups, hugging and taking photos with their mobile phones to mark the announcement.
“I can’t believe that this nightmare of more than a year is finally coming to an end. We have lost so many people, we’ve lost everything,” said Randa Sameeh, a 45-year-old displaced from Gaza City to the Nuseirat Camp in the center of the territory.
“We need a lot of rest. As soon as the truce begins, I will go to the cemetery to visit my brother and family members. We buried them in Deir el-Balah cemetery without proper graves. We will build them new graves and write their names on them.”
Outside Deir al-Balah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, hundreds of Palestinians gathered to chant, sing and wave flags.
At one point, a member of the crowd and a journalist in body armor were raised on people’s shoulders to conduct an interview above the mass of elated Gazans.
Palestinians celebrate the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, January 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
As an ambulance squeezed through the crowd to reach the hospital, smiling men and women alike chanted “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is greatest” in Arabic, and waved the Palestinian flag.
Young children, some looking confused by the commotion, gathered outside the hospital, too, milling between adults and watching as they gave interviews to the waiting media.
A gaggle of young boys in the center of the crowd led a popular pro-resistance chant as adults filmed the moment on their phones.
Armed Hamas gunmen were also seen parading the streets in uniform, celebrating the ceasefire.
في تحدٍ للاحتلال.. كتـائب القــسام في شوارع قطاع غزة:
“نحن في الميدان وسنظل في الميدان” pic.twitter.com/Gs5OnSUsZU
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) January 15, 2025
In Gaza City, 27-year-old Abdul Karim said: “I feel joy despite everything we’ve lost.”
“I can’t believe I will finally see my wife and two children again,” he added. “They left for the south almost a year ago. I hope they allow the displaced to return quickly.”
Large crowds also gathered in Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, with young men surfing through the crowd on the shoulders of others beating drums and cheering, an AFP photographer saw.
In Jordan’s capital Amman, revelers were seen parading through the streets with Palestinian flags, chanting slogans praising Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7, 2023 massacre who was killed in October by Israeli forces in southern Gaza.
“Raise your voices like the flame — Ya Sinwar, Gaza has won,” chanted some Jordanian demonstrators.
חגיגות בעמאן בירת ירדן אחרי הסכם הפסקת האש – “הרימו את קולכם כמו הלהבה – יא סינוואר, עזה ניצחה” pic.twitter.com/GhkxLslwuH
— roi kais • روعي كايس • רועי קייס (@kaisos1987) January 15, 2025
‘Resistance has won’
In the US, American anti-Israel groups hailed the Gaza ceasefire as a victory for the Palestinian “resistance.”
Within Our Lifetime, a hardline anti-Israel group in New York that has repeatedly denounced the Israeli offensive against Hamas as “genocide,” declared “Resistance has won.”
“Imperialism and Zionism has lost, the Democratic party has lost, the future of the Zionist state continues to be eroded,” group leader Nerdeen Kiswani said in a statement.
The Palestinian Youth Movement in New York announced a rally in Times Square tomorrow. “Palestinians in Gaza have not only survived, but shown the world that they will continue to rise until liberation,” it said.
National Students for Justice in Palestine called the agreement “a step forward on the long, arduous path to Palestine’s inevitable victory.”
“The people of Gaza chose to resist,” NSJP said.
Columbia University’s coalition of anti-Israel groups posted a message saying, “Glory to our martyrs, glory to our people, glory to our fighters.”
“This victory is Gaza’s alone, we must fight and escalate,” the group said.
The People’s Forum, a socialist anti-Israel group in New York, hailed “a victory for the Palestinian people and the global struggle for liberation.”
“The struggle against imperialism and Zionism has advanced,” the group said. “A new phase in the struggle begins now.”
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