Mistrust and bitterness pervade after delayed start to Gaza ceasefire; Gazans search for people buried under rubble

Palestinians began searching on Monday for thousands of Gazans believed still buried under rubble, as residents expressed shock at the devastation wrought by 15 months of war on the enclave on the second day of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Yemen’s Houthis will limit their attacks on commercial vessels to Israel-linked ships provided the Gaza ceasefire is fully implemented, said the Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center. 

Mediators on standby for obstacles as Gaza ceasefire starts

Sunday’s delayed start to the Gaza ceasefire and incidents on Monday in which Israeli troops shot at Palestinians approaching them underlined some of the hiccups likely to face a deal that will play out in the shadow of mutual mistrust and bitterness.

Qatar and Egypt, which brokered the deal alongside the US, have set up a communications hub to tackle any problems, where officials who worked on the deal for months hope to head off new clashes between foes locked in a years-long cycle of Gaza wars.

“These kinds of deals are never easy to maintain,” said Majed Al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry.

Particularly in a war zone, the situation can shift very quickly, either by accident or through political posturing on one side or another, he said.

“Any party could consider a threat a reason to violate the parameters of the agreement, and therefore we would end up having to go in and find a way to resume the ceasefire.”

With just over an hour to go before the ceasefire was due to take effect on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel would not observe the halt to fighting until Hamas handed over the names of the three hostages to be released later in the day.

Fighting continued almost three hours past the deadline, while a Hamas official in the coordination room set up in Cairo discussed the delay, which Hamas put down to unspecified “technical issues” with officials.

The issue was eventually dealt with and the three hostages were released on schedule in the afternoon in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails late that night, setting off emotional scenes as they returned to their families.

“We don’t expect things to go according to plan,” said one official briefed on the negotiations, adding that issues of this kind were not expected to derail a process that diplomats and officials had been working on for months.

“It’s hard to believe that after all the work the mediators have put in and the assurances they received, both from the US and the mediators, that this deal would derail on day one,” said the official.

The multi-phase deal will see an initial six-week ceasefire, during which 33 hostages will be gradually exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, people displaced from northern Gaza will be allowed to return to their homes and Israeli troops will pull back from some positions.

During the first phase, negotiations will begin for the release of the remaining 64 hostages, consisting of men of military age and for the full withdrawal of Israeli troops. But few expect the process to go without problems.

With an extremely low level of trust between both sides who have fought each other for generations, potential pitfalls run from accidental or deliberate confrontations during the period of withdrawal to disputes over the identity and state of hostages to be released or returned.

So far, Hamas has not said how many of the hostages are still alive. A list of the remaining 30 hostages due for release in the first phase and whether they are alive or dead is expected to be handed over on Saturday.

The Israeli military says it is seeking to avoid situations in which Gaza residents come too close to Israeli troops that are pulling back. Already on Monday, troops fired on at least eight Palestinians who approached them, said medics in Gaza.

To prevent this, it will publish maps and guidelines as the agreement progresses, making clear which areas should not be approached as the withdrawal proceeds, said an Israeli military official.

“The areas will change as the troops gradually withdraw from the Gaza Strip,” said the military official.

In Israel, the deal is viewed with deep suspicion by some, who say it leaves Hamas in control of Gaza and others who worry that it effectively abandons the hostages not included in the first phase.

Already, hardliner Itamar Ben-Gvir resigned as national security minister on the morning of the ceasefire and pulled his party from Netanyahu’s coalition and others may follow.

Israeli public radio reported that Israeli officials were shocked to see the three hostages released in the centre of Gaza on Sunday getting out of a car in the middle of a large crowd of people held back by Hamas fighters in uniform, and will inform the mediators that they regard such scenes as unacceptable.

But mediators are counting on positive momentum as the release of hostages and prisoners continues over the coming weeks to ease opposition.

Gazans begin searching for people under rubble on day two of ceasefire

Palestinians began searching on Monday for thousands of Gazans believed still buried under rubble, as residents expressed shock at the devastation wrought by 15 months of war on the enclave on the second day of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The truce in the 15-month-old conflict, which has laid waste to the Gaza Strip and inflamed the Middle East, took effect on Sunday with the release of the first three hostages held by Hamas and 90 Palestinians freed from Israeli jails.

Now attention is starting to shift to the rebuilding of the coastal enclave which the Israeli military has demolished in retaliation for a Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

That assault killed 1,200 people with around 250 hostages taken into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. In the subsequent conflict, more than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

“We are searching for 10,000 martyrs whose bodies remain under the rubble,” said Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson of the Palestinian Civil Emergency Services.

At least 2,840 bodies were melted and there were no traces of them, he said.

Displaced Gazan Mohamed Gomaa lost his brother and nephew in the war.

“It was a big shock, and the amount [of people] feeling shocked is countless because of what happened to their homes — it’s destruction, total destruction. It’s not like an earthquake or a flood; no no, what happened is a war of extermination,” he said.

With a growing flow of aid into the Palestinian enclave, residents flocked into markets, with some expressing happiness at the lower prices and the presence of new food items like imported chocolates.

One of the Israeli women hostages released on Sunday, Emily Damari, posted a message on Instagram on Monday.

“I have returned to life, my loved ones,” she wrote, “I am the happiest in the world, to just be,” said Damari, a British-Israeli citizen.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where most of the freed Palestinian detainees returned, Nidaa Zaghebi was finally able to embrace her three children who she had left behind after her arrest by Israeli forces.

Zaghebi’s daughters Sadan and Cilla were in tears as they hugged their mother when she arrived at their home, wearing a crown of flowers and wrapped in a traditional Palestinian scarf.

“I used to dream of them every night and imagine what they were doing. I know the family here were very supportive and took good care of them, but motherhood overcomes all other feelings,” she told Reuters.

Billions of dollars will be needed to rebuild Gaza after the war. A UN damage assessment released this month showed that clearing over 50 million tonnes of rubble left in the aftermath of Israel’s bombardment could take 21 years and cost up to $1.2-billion.

Houthis to target only Israel-linked vessels following Gaza deal

Yemen’s Houthis will limit their attacks on commercial vessels to Israel-linked ships provided the Gaza ceasefire is fully implemented, said the Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center (HOOC).

The Sanaa-based HOCC, which liaises between Houthi forces and commercial shipping operators and is associated with the Houthi military, said it was stopping “sanctions” against vessels owned by US or British individuals or entities, as well as ships sailing under their flags.

“We affirm that, in the event of any aggression against the Republic of Yemen by the United States of America, the United Kingdom, or the usurping Israeli entity, the sanctions will be reinstated against the aggressor,” it said in an email sent to shipping industry officials dated 19 January.

The HOCC said the Houthis would stop targeting Israeli-linked ships “upon the full implementation of all phases of the agreement”.

Many of the world’s biggest shipping companies have suspended voyages through the Red Sea and diverted their vessels around southern Africa to avoid being attacked.

The Iran-backed Houthis have carried out more than 100 attacks on ships since November 2023 and sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least four seafarers.

They have targeted the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, which are joined by the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait, a chokepoint between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East.

Flow of aid to Gaza could take time, warns International Rescue Committee chief

The flow of aid into Gaza could take time to ramp up, said the chief of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), David Miliband, on Monday, as relief trucks conducted a second day of deliveries following the start of the ceasefire.

The deal requires 600 truckloads of aid to be allowed into Gaza every day of the initial six-week ceasefire, including 50 carrying fuel.

“That’s a big step up,” said Miliband, speaking to Reuters in London. “I fear … it will take time. We want to ramp up as quickly as possible.”

He said the IRC in Gaza was focused particularly on water and sanitation, child protection and other healthcare.

“What counts is the medicine that gets through, the water … the fuel … the aid workers ... and whether they get through safely,” he said, referring to issues with looting and security threats to deliveries that have been a problem during the 15-month war, when aid to Gaza was extremely limited.

In line with other humanitarian leaders, Miliband said that funding was also needed for a sustained response in Gaza, for what he described as “the biggest [aid] surge you can imagine, because it’s a massive emergency”.

Earlier, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said 630 trucks had entered Gaza on day one of the ceasefire.

Speaking ahead of President Donald Trump’s inauguration in Washington, Miliband cautioned that governments globally were stepping back from tackling international problems despite a rise in humanitarian need.

“I think governments are in retreat from big global problems, and that means that NGOs and the corporate sector and the philanthropic sector needs to step up and show what the answers are,” he said. DM

Read more: Middle East crisis news hub