TRANSCRIPT
It's a day they won't forget.
Mona and her family were up all night as news of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas broke, checking in with loved ones who didn't make it out of Gaza.
"We were happy because the war finished. It was our need and our hope. Every moment we asked Allah to stop the war, to stop killing our people, our children.”
They lived through six months of bombardment, losing their home just days into the war.
But when the neurosurgeon’s hospital was no longer safe, they fled south, then to Australia.
"It's not easy to believe that happened. I don't want to cry but I cry a lot at night. I feel all these mothers they lost their sons. All these mothers they lost the sons, all these women they lost their husbands. The question will be, they will return back to their house without someone in the family?"
For those in the Israeli community, there are similar feelings of relief.
This is Ran Porat from the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash University.
"Looking forward to the release of our Israeli friends, our Israeli families. People that were kept in the worst conditions for a year and a half. Some of them are feared dead. This is a scar that will take many many years to heal.”
Dr Porat, like many others, is concerned the ceasefire won’t hold.
“The concern is about the longer term, the future. Will that lead to a better future between Israel and Palestinians, Israel and the Middle East. These are questions very much still open.”
Mona and her family would one day like to return to see their home and remaining family.
But even now, they cannot imagine a safe life in Gaza.
"The people are very, very tired after the war. They need a long time for rehabilitation. The building, we will build, but the people, the personality, its very difficult to rebuild. It’s a dream, inshallah (God willing). We hope. We hope that we can do something, that we can return to Gaza - our Gaza."
