Live Updates: Israel and Hamas agree on Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal

Abdul Rahman Salama is one of thousands of Palestinians in Khan Younis in southern Gaza struggling to save supplies during the harsh winter. People here are questioning what might happen next after mediators said Hamas and Israel are the closest they have come to a ceasefire-hostage deal in months.

As Abu Samir walks through his devastated neighborhood, a place he says residents no longer recognize, he asks about the day after the fighting has stopped.

The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has raged for 15 months, turning Gaza into a wasteland and displacing at least 90% of Palestinians since October 2023, according to the United Nations. More than 46,000 people have been killed – mostly women and children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The death toll is likely to be much higher, with a study published in the journal The Lancet last week estimating that more than 64,000 people were killed in Gaza alone between October 7, 2023, and June 30, 2024.

Saba Ahmed Abu Ouda said her friends were killed in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza at the beginning of the war. She has been staying in a school building that has become a displacement center.

“We used to play together, cook lunch, do our homework and study,” she said. “I’m sorry I won’t find them when I go home.”

Noor, 12, said she has been displaced seven times during the war and wants to see what happened to her school friend, who she has not heard from for a year after her home was destroyed.

“I just want to go home. I want my belongings, my toys, my memories,” she said.

Um Mohammad Abu Ubeid knows her house has barely survived in the largely razed southern city of Rafah, but still dreams of returning.