KHAN YOUNIS/TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Gazans desperate for an end to their suffering said on Monday they wanted the truce to be extended, while Israelis were divided between those who wanted an extension so all hostages could come home and others worried about giving in to Hamas demands.
The truce was due to expire on Monday, and negotiators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States were trying to persuade Hamas and Israel to reach an agreement to prolong it.
In Khan Younis, a town in southern Gaza where hundreds of thousands of people displaced from the north have sought refuge in tents and schools, a large crowd had gathered at a U.N. depot where sacks of flour were being distributed.
Sabreen al-Najar said she had waited for several hours to get flour to feed her children, but the ration she had been given was barely enough to last two or three days.
“We want to go back (to our homes). We don’t want war at all,” she said, calling on Arab countries to help Gaza. “God willing the truce will be extended.”
Al-Najar said her family did not have enough food or clean water, and when it rained they got completely drenched in their makeshift shelter.
Other displaced people talked about their difficulties with the cold and rain, the lack of food and power, the daily queues for basic goods, and their longing to return home. All of them wanted the truce to continue.
“What is this four-day truce? This is so unfair, what’s been done to us. What are we going to do in only four days? We’re getting by with candles. We don’t have batteries, gas, electricity, or water. We get water from faraway places,” said Jumaa al-Araj, a man in a wheelchair.
The war began when Hamas militants burst out of Gaza on Oct. 7 and rampaged through southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, including babies and children, and seizing more than 200 hostages.
Israel responded with an all-out assault on Gaza which has killed 14,800 Palestinians, four in ten of them children under 18, according to health officials in the Hamas-controlled territory.
WIDE RANGE OF VIEWS IN ISRAEL
On the other side of the border, Israelis were focused on the fate of the hostages. A total of 58 have been released in three phases since Friday, with more expected to be freed on Monday out of 184 still being held in Gaza.
“We want all hostages back home now, so whatever it takes and as long as we keep on getting them back home, I want the ceasefire to continue,” said community manager Arava Gerzon Raz, speaking on a square in Tel Aviv that has become a hub for families and supporters of the hostages.
Ido Segev, an Intel employee, said he was optimistic the truce would be extended as long as Hamas continued handing over hostages.
“You strike deals when you have some mutual interest and as long as Hamas has an interest to get ceasefire because of military pressure or other reasons they will be paying for that, if you will, with hostages,” he said.
There were, however, dissonant voices who gave a flavour of the wide range of views on the conflict within Israeli society.
Adam Sela, who runs a tourism company, said he was against the truce and thought Israel should have held out for a better deal in which all hostages were released.
“I think we’re being manoeuvred into a position which is favourable for them (Hamas), and like in all conflicts, if it’s favourable for one side, it’s unfavourable for the other side,” he said.
But Jerusalem resident Anat Errel felt very differently.
“I really hope that it will continue to be ceasefire because violence is not a solution for anything,” she said, distinguishing between Hamas and civilians in Gaza.
“They (Hamas) need to be punished, but not all the other people in Gaza need to be punished,” she said.
(Reporting by Dedi Hayun and Nathan Frandino in Israel and by Saleh Salem and Ibraheem Abu Mustafa in Gaza; Writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Nick Macfie)
