A group of MacEwan University students gathered on Saturday to commemorate the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The ceasefire is set to go into effect on Sunday morning local time. The first phase will last 42 days, and includes the exchange of 33 Israeli hostages and 737 Palestinians taken prisoner by Israel. Nour Salhi, an organizer and advocate for the Palestinian community, said the group was made up of several local organizations who came together to mark the development and mourn the lives lost in the 15-month-long war. “We just wanted to honor those people, the Palestinians in Gaza, the Palestinians in the West Bank, the people in Lebanon, too, and just come together and have a moment for them,” Salhi said. The war is the deadliest clash between Israel and the Hamas militant group, and the pause in the fighting will allow Israeli troops to pull back. That, in turn, will allow displaced Palestinians to return to their homes, though the United Nations estimated in December that more than 245,000 homes had been destroyed. Critical humanitarian aid will also be able to move into the country, with an estimated 600 trucks of aid to enter Gaza daily once the Rafah crossing is re-opened. Salhi said news of a ceasefire has brought relief, but the community still fears for what will happen next. “Whether or not there’s a ceasefire in Gaza, there’s still a siege,” Salhi said. “They still get to control what goes in or out – medical care, aid, water, food … What’s next is continuing to call for the complete liberation of Palestine and its people.” Students from both MacEwan University and the University of Alberta have made ongoing demands on the institutions to divest and disclose financial ties to Israel, as well as declare a genocide in Gaza. With files from the Associated Press
