Although a ceasefire officially went into effect on October 10, Israel continues to carry out occasional attacks, killing more than 442 Palestinians in the three months since.
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It’s not just the attacks – daily life in Gaza is also shaped by siege and displacement, and a sense that living conditions will not improve any time soon.
Amid this exhaustion, the United States on Wednesday announced the beginning of the “second phase” of the ceasefire. US special envoy Steve Witkoff said in a social media post the phase is about “moving from a ceasefire to demilitarisation, technocratic governance and reconstruction”.
The new phase involves a new Palestinian technical administration, overseen by an international “peace board” chaired by US President Donald Trump.
But while everything may seem pragmatic on paper, the reaction of Palestinians in Gaza – which mixes cautious hope and deep skepticism – is shaped by their lived experience since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.
Arwa Ashour, a freelance journalist and writer based in Gaza City, said, “Too many political decisions are far from the reality faced in Gaza… Our daily lives are filled with blockades, fear, loss, tents and a terrible humanitarian situation.” “Even when decisions are taken to alleviate suffering, they are hindered by Israeli occupation authorities.”
Ashour said, “People want everything as it was before the war: schools, hospitals, travel.” “If the Peace Board is going to solve all these crises, we welcome it. But if it is unable to do so, what is the point?”
Palestinians excluded?
Ashour explained that after two years of war and more than 18 years of Hamas rule in the Palestinian territory, there is a desire for change in Gaza.
“People want to be part of the process of creating the future, not just accept the implementation of decisions already made,” he said.
The governance model envisioned in the second phase of the ceasefire plan includes a Palestinian component.
Ali Shaath, former deputy minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), will head the Palestinian technical committee that will manage daily life. But that committee will be overseen by a peace board, led by Nikolay Mladenov, Bulgaria’s former foreign and defense minister.
Mladenov – who has served as a UN diplomat in the Middle East – is seen as an administrator, but one who may not be able to push back against Israel and represent the Palestinians in Gaza.
“Decisions taken without the meaningful participation of those most affected reproduce the same power structures that enabled this occupation and genocide,” Maha Husseini, head of media and public engagement at Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, told Al Jazeera. “Excluding Palestinians in Gaza from shaping their future strips them of agency and turns reconstruction and governance into tools of control rather than recovery.”
For Husseini, justice cannot be ignored after a war in which Israel has killed at least 71,400 Palestinians and destroyed large swathes of territory.
“Peace does not mean silence after bombings, nor a pause between wars,” he said. “For Gaza, peace means security, dignity and freedom from collective impunity. It also means justice: recognizing the harm done, restoring the rights of victims, and holding perpetrators accountable. Without justice, so-called ‘peace’ becomes only a temporary arrangement that perpetuates genocide.”
Palestinian political analyst Ahmed Fayyad said that ultimately, Palestinians have little choice but to go along with Mladenov and the peace board model, even if there is a feeling that they are handing over the administration of Gaza to foreigners.
“Palestinians do not have a choice to accept or reject Mladenov,” Fayyad said. “Nobody – the Palestinian Authority and the Arab (countries) – wants to disrupt the agreement.”
But Fayyad described several potential obstacles, including internal Palestinian divisions between the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and its longtime rival Hamas.
The analyst also believes that demilitarization of Hamas – which the US and Israel insist on, but Hamas says is an internal Palestinian matter – would also likely create problems.
“Israel could link demilitarization to reconstruction or opening of (border) crossings and investment in the education and health sectors,” Fayyad said.
“It’s complicated, and it’s all subject to Israeli security conditions,” he said, adding that the formation of a new Palestinian security force that meets Israel’s tough requirements would take a long time because the process was not mentioned in Trump’s ceasefire plan.
“This will have a negative impact on citizens who yearn for an improvement in their daily harsh reality and suffering in tents amid the outbreak of the disease and the collapse of all economic and social life,” Fayyad said.
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The announcement of the second phase of the ceasefire – a move that was supposed to be seen as a sign of positive improvements – seems disconnected from the reality on the ground for Palestinians in Gaza.
“There is more fear than hope,” said Husseini of the Euro-Med human rights monitor. “Not because people in Gaza lack resilience or imagination, but because experience has taught them that moments labeled as ‘turning points’ rarely translate into real security or accountability. Hope exists, but it is fragile and increasingly vulnerable to the absence of justice and decisions imposed from outside.”
And the most influential outside power is Israel – the power that has bombed Gaza not only in the last two years but in many previous wars, and controls air and sea access to and around Gaza.
Analyst Fayyad said, “I think Israel does its best to keep Gaza away from any political solution that would end with Palestine’s right to self-determination.” “Israel wants Gaza to be a demilitarized zone; its people’s biggest concerns are the daily struggles of life, without regard for any political solution.”
He concluded, “Israel does not want any future political solution for Gaza. These are the concerns of the Authority and the Palestinians. Israel does not want independence in decision-making in Palestine.”
Reality of life in Gaza
Sami Balousha, a 30-year-old computer programmer from Gaza City, can think about the daily struggle of life.
Balousha described peace not as a political agreement conducted in far-flung meeting rooms, but as physical security and a routine.
Balousha said, “Sleeping at night is just to assure that I will wake up the next morning, not dead, otherwise I will not wake up in the middle of the night because of the sound of bombing.” “It’s getting up the next morning and going to work, and making sure I’ll be able to get home safely, not walking around in fear of a strike all the time.”
Balousha said he and his family were displaced 17 times – moving from one place to another to escape Israeli attacks. The mental turmoil of the past two years means he no longer looks to the future, but instead focuses on the here and now.
“Tomorrow is far away and I have no control over it,” Balousha said. “We can’t imagine or plan for the near future. We’ve been stuck in this cycle for two years. The reality has always been strangely difficult and unpredictable.”
Like many others, Balousha feels cut off from international decision making.
“He doesn’t have a deep understanding of the needs of the Palestinians in Gaza. I don’t feel that we are being listened to seriously,” he said.
This is why they ultimately do not have much confidence in any solution being drawn up for Gaza, and instead fear that their current terror will become a permanent reality.
“I fear that future generations will accept the new reality of living in open graves, accepting tents as homes, growing up without knowing the great days of Gaza,” Balousha said. “People just want an end to all this, it doesn’t matter what the solution is, it doesn’t matter who makes it, what matters is an end to this suffering at any cost. People are tired, very tired of all this, but want to live.”
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