Refugees in Gaza: From the comfort of home to the horrors of war

Poor conditions in Gaza, characterized by continued violence, rodent attacks and the spread of infectious diseases, are exacerbated by blockages preventing vital medical supplies from entering the territory.

‘I feel like I’m in prison’

Umm Ahmad lives with her family in a camp in the western part of Gaza City, where she arrived after a refugee trip that forced her family to move four times – after fleeing from Jabalia in the north.

“This tent broke our backs; we couldn’t even stand up in it. I felt like I was in prison,” he said, entering his flimsy temporary home.

Pointing to a bag of bread hanging at the entrance of the tent, he told our correspondent: “We hang the food to keep it away from the rats. Rats and rodents sleep among us in the tent. This is suffering more difficult than the war itself.”

Water scarcity

In the narrow corridor between the tents, Umm Ahmad stood in front of a small table on which had been placed a bowl of soap and water for washing plates and glasses. Due to scarcity, many families rely on manually storing water in plastic containers in quantities that cannot meet their daily needs.

“There is very little water, if it were available we could clean it. The possibilities are limited, as you can see, and the situation is disgusting. This is life in a tent.”

UN partners on the ground report that access to water remains a major challenge, with three out of four families relying on truck deliveries. Humanitarian partners distribute around 24,000 cubic meters of water this way every day through around 2,000 distribution points.

However, those deliveries depend on generators and engines that are at risk of breakdown due to a shortage of maintenance and repair supplies. Humanitarian organizations continue to emphasize that critical supplies must be immediately allowed into Gaza to prevent critical equipment from falling.

Lives turned into rubble

Sitting on a small plastic barrel, Umm Ahmad recalled the spacious house and the life she once lived: “We used to live in a five-story house equipped with all the necessities of life, with an apartment for our children to get married in, but it was destroyed by the war.

“We had everything, we were living in luxury and suddenly our lives changed drastically and we were living in tents. This is our fourth evacuation; we have been on the streets for three years now.”

More than two and a half years after Hamas attacked communities in southern Israel that led to massive retaliatory attacks, the cloth tents scattered across Gaza are no longer just temporary shelters for refugees, but have become a prolonged daily reality for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

‘A life full of humiliation’

Frustrated and sad, he told our correspondent: “No matter what I tell you, I cannot describe what life is like in the tent. In winter, the tent is flooded with rain every day and the wind blows it away. We put it back up, and we couldn’t dry our clothes or mattresses.

“In summer, suffering is even worse due to attacks by rats, other rodents and insects. It is a life of humiliation; I can’t take it anymore.”

When our reporter asked him about privacy in the tent, Umm Ahmad said, “There was no privacy. We were all huddled in tents. Now that my two sons are getting married, we tried to put up two tents for them, but there wasn’t enough space. You can’t imagine what we went through. Bathrooms and sanitation were another problem.”

The health situation in this enclave is very worrying. 22 attacks on health services have been reported in Gaza this year and nearly half of the hospitals are partially functional, while not a single hospital can be considered fully operational.

Umm Ahmad just smiled when her two grandchildren approached her and she started to entertain them. There was once plenty of space and abundance, but life in the camps was a constant struggle to meet even the most basic needs.