Massachusetts residents with ties to Israel and the Palestinian territories are expressing relief and celebration upon hearing that a ceasefire agreement has been reached between Israel and Hamas.
The ceasefire is expected to take effect on Sunday, though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said government approval has been delayed because of a “last-minute crisis” with Hamas. Once in effect, dozens of Israeli hostages are anticipated to be released, though not all will be freed immediately.
“It’s not in effect yet,” said Abood Okal, who was stranded in Gaza with his wife and child in fall 2023 but eventually got home to Medway, Massachusetts. “Until it’s a reality on the ground that there is no more bombing, no more deaths, I think it’s safe to be cautiously optimistic.”
Many of the family members and others in Gaza who helped Okal and his wife, Wafaa Abuzayda, died after their return to the United States. One airstrike killed 20 of their loved ones — three generations — who were in the same house. Abuzayda lost many family members, including her favorite uncle.
“During during the time we were there, one of our food runs ... he basically gave us oranges, a bag full of oranges that he picked off the tree from his house,” Okal said. “And a few months later, after we left Gaza, he basically got killed, targeted by a drone doing exactly the same: Picking oranges off the tree.”
He believes the ceasefire will reveal “tens of thousands” of those who have been reported missing are in fact dead. “Once the ceasefire stops, if you don’t see them in 24 hours, 48 hours, you know for a fact that they are dead.”
Jason Greenberg of Needham said this agreement is the closest they have gotten to bringing the hostages home, but he still has reservations.
“I think that there’s still a bit of trepidation on the part of hostage relatives like myself and my family in Israel that we won’t believe it until we see our loved ones’ faces,” Greenberg said.
Two of his relatives were killed when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. His cousin, Ofer Calderon, was kidnapped, along with his two children, Erez and Sahar. Both of Ofer’s children were released in November 2023, but he is still being held in Gaza.
“If Ofer is released and he is alive, he’s not going to be the same person. He has a long road ahead of him,” Greenberg said. “And so does every other hostage and their families.”
Sammy Nabulsi, a Palestinian-American lawyer who negotiated for Okal and Abuzayda’s return , said he’s cautiously watching what happens between now and Sunday, when the deal formally goes into effect.
“We’ve already heard and seen airstrikes in Gaza,” he said. “Ramping up attacks doesn’t seem like a productive way to keep a deal like this intact.”
Israel has continued to attack residential neighborhoods in Gaza after the announcement of the deal, launching airstrikes Wednesday that killed 73 people overnight, according to the Gaza health ministry.
“A lot of us are kind of still watching in horror as we keep seeing videos and getting updates that scores of people are being killed in airstrikes, while we’re all here celebrating a ceasefire agreement,” Nabulsi said.
Okal also expressed sympathy for those who have died and will die in the days ahead.
“We feel the extreme pain for the people that are in Gaza that are going to get killed between now and Sunday,” he said. “They’ve endured 15 months of war, starvation, homelessness, basically being displaced internally within Gaza — and in the last stretch before a ceasefire they get killed, because the war machine is going on.”
Israel has already repeatedly violated a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon that went into effect in late November, with tank shelling, demolition of buildings, incursions, airstrikes and drone attacks, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.
The agreement comes after six weeks of intensive negotiations in Doha, Qatar and includes the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. Those displaced in Gaza would also be allowed to return to what remains of the strip, according to the Associated Press.
Guy Ben-Aharon of Boston, who also has family in Israel, said he has gone back and forth between Boston and Israel multiple times over the last 15 months.
“To live in such different realities between the two, it’s been very scary,” Ben-Aharon said. “I was in the U.S. when Oct. 7th happened … and I’ve been in Israel during the sirens.”
Ben-Aharon also has family serving in Israel’s military, and he hopes they are no longer at risk of being involved in combat.
But until the ceasefire, he said “it feels like we’re waiting for an exhale.”
