Gaza, life amidst suffering in one of the camps in the south

2024-10-05 10:55:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

As it marks almost a year since the start of the war, for Gazans whose homes have been completely destroyed, struggling to secure basic necessities has become part of everyday life. According to the United Nations Organization, 1.9 million people or 86% of the population that this region had before the war, have been displaced. Many of them live in refugee camps with marked shortages of food products and health care. VOA correspondent Dorian Jones reports.

The Beit Lahyia camp, in southern Gaza, serves as a shelter for 200 families.

One of them, the Salha family, who moved from the northern part, after an Israeli attack destroyed their house.

Warda Almoslami, her husband Monder, their five sons and two daughters now live in a tent with plastic covers.

Every day is a separate challenge for them.

" Everything has become difficult because there is no water, energy or other necessary things. The first thing we do every day is to provide drinking water. With it we wash the children's faces, comb their hair. Each of us has the duties of everyday people ," says Warda Almoslami, one of the many displaced people in Gaza.

Today, it is the duty of 13-year-old Bana Salha to fill water.

Bana, who has moved four times with her family since the house was destroyed, says she misses being back to normal.

" We hope to rebuild the house. We want to rebuild it and go back to the north. We want to see our friends, schoolmates, teachers and go back to school ," she says.

Bana's father, Monder, worked in construction.

This is the fourth time he has built a tent with plastic sheeting for his family, having had to move repeatedly to escape the fighting. But with temperatures reaching as low as 8 degrees Celsius, Monderi says he is doing his best to build a tent that can withstand the winter. He says he doesn't have the money for a stronger shelter since he can't find work.

" Finding work depends on the relationship you have with the community. We are strangers here, having come from another part of Gaza and with the ongoing war, there are no jobs ," he says.

Like the other women in the camp, Warda spends most of the day cooking and baking bread in a clay oven. Some of the loaves she sells, providing a small amount of income.

At the end of the day, she gathers with the other women to rest, but their conversations, she says, are dominated by the war and the approaching cold winter.

" There are bombings everywhere, in every area. It doesn't matter if there are people there or not. There are bombings in markets, in schools, everywhere. We are already afraid of the rain as we are not prepared for winter ", says Warda Almoslami.

Numerous attempts at peace in Gaza have failed. Israel says that the war will end only with the destruction of Hamas and the return of all those hostages that continue to be in the hands of the militant group since the October 7 attack on the Jewish state, a year ago./ VOA