Ahmed Ishtaiwi has six chairs. They are cheap and plastic and battered, but they are among the ۴۳-year-old driver and mechanic’s most valuable possessions.
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 ۷ October ۲۰۲۳ by Hamas militants into southern Israel that killed ۱,۲۰۰ people, mostly civilians, and triggered a relentless Israeli military offensive that killed ۷۳,۰۰۰ Palestinians, mostly civilians, wounded many more and reduced swathes of Gaza to rubble.
When Layan al-Jbour, a ۱۵-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 ۱,۴۰۰ 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.
“It is what we feared … a ceasefire that just isn’t a ceasefire,” said one international aid worker now based in Amman, Jordan, who worked in Gaza throughout much of the conflict. “Daily life is horrible. People aren’t hungry any more but they are still malnourished. Our local staff are telling us that this is just the next stage of the conflict.”
Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told the UN security council last month that despite the increase in supplies entering Gaza, the health situation remained critical, with “infectious diseases … widespread amid overcrowded displacement sites and inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene conditions”.
Inadequate funding for relief efforts exacerbated the “shortages of medical supplies, fuel and the overall humanitarian response”, Alakbarov said, while “restrictions on the entry of critical humanitarian items imposed by Israel” were slowing preparations for cold weather.
Israeli authorities deny shortages and say adequate supplies are reaching Gaza, with more than ۶۰۰ trucks entering the territory each day.
Saleh Kilani, ۷۰, from Beit Lahiya, used to have a farm and olive trees before the war. “Around this time of year, I used to press about ۶۰ containers of olive oil. But I lost all of that too. If I go to my home I may die, and if I go to my farm, I may die too. This is not a life. We are exhausted and we have lost hope.”
Kilani said life before the conflict seemed very distant. “We never used to think twice about seeing orange and peach trees, green fields, grapes and figs. These things were simply part of our lives. Now when we see them, we are surprised,” he said.
Hamas, which swiftly reimposed its authority over the ۲.۳ million Palestinians who live in the third of Gaza not under the control of the Israeli military, has rebuilt a rudimentary administration which provides patchy education, some healthcare services and limited policing based on deterrence through often arbitrary punishment.
Donald Trump’s plan to definitively end the war in Gaza has stalled, with little progress towards disarming Hamas, securing the withdrawal of Israeli troops and beginning the vast job of reconstruction.
“My biggest fear is that this situation will continue. We are living through a period that can be described as neither war nor peace,” said Kilani.
The only time Esraa Abu Taiba recalls her prewar existence is when she gets to practise her former profession: beautician.
The ۲۶-year-old lived in Bani Suheila, a town to the east of Khan Younis and now within the zone controlled by Israel. Of her five brothers, two were killed in the conflict, two were wounded, and one is among the more than ۱,۵۰۰ Palestinians from Gaza in detention in Israel.
“Before the war my life was quiet and good,” she said. “I could go wherever I wanted without fear or restrictions. We lived in our own home. We had a washing machine, a tap and a garden. The house belonged to us and we lived there comfortably.
“Now we live in a tent. Our lives depend on carrying water and getting food from the community kitchen. A water truck comes to the end of the street and … I go to collect it because my mother cannot carry it.”
Like most Palestinians in Gaza, her family was displaced multiple times during the conflict, and they have lost everything from their former home – except a house key, which her mother keeps close.
“The only thing I still do from my old life is some beauty work. I cut girls’ hair in the tents around us and do their makeup for weddings,” said Abu Taiba.
“It takes me back to a beautiful and happy period of our lives, when we used to celebrate weddings and other happy occasions before the war. It takes me away from the misery we are living through, even if only for a little while.”
