‘Neither war nor peace’: Palestinians in Gaza on existing amid disease, despair and ruins

The genocide continues… in full view of the world

People tell of lives changed beyond recognition after the 7 October attacks by Hamas three years ago and the subsequent Israeli offensive

By Seham Tantesh in Gaza and Jason Burke

Ahmed Ishtaiwi has six chairs. They are cheap and plastic and battered, but they are among the 43-year-old driver and mechanic’s most valuable possessions.

Photo: Ali Jadalla/Anadolu/Getty

Ishtaiwi lives in a tent near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza with his two daughters. Their former home is far to the north, in the now ruined town of Beit Lahiya, uninhabitable and impossible to reach.

“When I sit on those chairs, I remember sitting in the garden at home, having breakfast and drinking tea. They remind me of my life there,” he said last week.

Wednesday is the anniversary of the raid on 7 October 2023 by Hamas militants into southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and triggered a relentless Israeli military offensive that killed 73,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, wounded many more and reduced swathes of Gaza to rubble.

When Layan al-Jbour, a 15-year-old from the southern city of Khan Younis, tries to bring some order to the crowded makeshift shelter she shares with her parents, brothers and sisters in al-Mawasi, a strip of coastline at the southernmost end of Gaza, she recalls life before the war.

“When I tidy the tent, I remember our home and how I used to tidy it. I remember my room and how I used to make my bed. When I put a sheet over a table and arrange the bedding, the place looks like our old home,” al-Jbour said.

“We hardly took anything with us from our home. We left everything behind, and the only thing I took was my schoolbag. It is the most precious thing I own now. It reminds me so much of my school days. I loved going to school and meeting my friends there.”

Across Gaza, Palestinians describe daily routines full of challenges that nothing in their former lives prepared them for: shortages of water and of nourishing food, minimal healthcare, disease, unemployment, economic collapse and the continuing threat of death or injury.

Despite a ceasefire a year ago, Israel’s airstrikes continue. Palestinians who have approached the “yellow line” that divides Gaza into zones controlled by the Israeli military and by Hamas have been shot dead. In the last year, the overall death toll has risen by a further 1,400 people.

In recent days, Israeli attacks have intensified, killing at least two Palestinians in Gaza on Tuesday, according to health officials. The Israeli military said the strikes targeted militants.

On Wednesday, Gaza medics said at least two Palestinians were killed and others wounded in airstrikes in Beit Lahiya and Khan Younis….

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