Gazans live between war and peace amid disease, ruins and lost homes

Palestinians in Gaza continue to live in tents and temporary shelters despite a ceasefire declared a year ago. Daily life is shaped by shortages of water and nutritious food, limited healthcare, disease and the continuing fear of death or injury.

Another 1,400 people have been killed over the past year. Israeli strikes killed at least two Palestinians on Tuesday, medics said; the Israeli military said the targets were militants. On Wednesday, medics reported deaths and injuries in Beit Lahiya and Khan Younis.

Life in tents and memories of home

Forty-three-year-old Ahmed Ishtaiwi lives with his two daughters in a tent near Deir al-Balah. His former home in Beit Lahiya has been destroyed, and six plastic chairs are among his most valued possessions because they remind him of having breakfast in the family garden.

Fifteen-year-old Layan al-Jbour lives with her family in a crowded makeshift shelter in al-Mawasi. She kept her schoolbag and tries to arrange the tent as she once arranged her bedroom.

Disease and shortages in aid

Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told the Security Council that infectious diseases were widespread in overcrowded displacement sites because of inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene conditions. He said inadequate funding was worsening shortages of medical supplies and fuel.

Israeli authorities deny shortages and say more than 600 trucks enter Gaza each day with supplies.

Loss of property, work and safety

Seventy-year-old Saleh Kilani from Beit Lahiya lost his farm and olive trees. He once produced about 60 containers of olive oil around this time of year, but now fears returning both to his home and to his farm.

Esraa Abu Taiba, 26, from Bani Suheila, lives in a tent and collects water for her family. Two of her brothers were killed, two were wounded and another is among more than 1,500 Palestinians from Gaza detained in Israel. She cuts hair and applies makeup for women in nearby tents, maintaining a link to her life before the war.

Donald Trump’s plan to end the war has stalled, with little progress on disarming Hamas, withdrawing Israeli troops or beginning reconstruction, the report says. Hamas has re-established limited administration in parts of Gaza not controlled by Israeli forces.