Homeless and little hope: Gaza residents one year after October 7

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7 in the Gaza Strip, residents have lost everything. As the first anniversary approaches, AFP spoke with three of them who talk about how their lives have changed.

The student stopped in his tracks

Fares al-Farra, 19, was as brilliant at school as he was ambitious.

Two months before October 7, he graduated from high school and enrolled at the Gaza Higher School of Applied Sciences.

“I was always convinced that one day I would achieve my goals”he remembers with nostalgia in the rubble of his house.

But with the war, his family, who were displaced from Khan Younes, their town in the south of the Gaza Strip, had to live for months in a camp before returning home after an evacuation order in Rafah, also in the south.

Then a bomb fell on his house, destroying the walls and killing his friend Abou Hassan. He escaped with a broken arm.

All the hardships of the war took a toll on his optimism, he said.

“We have the impression that all avenues are closed (…), basic needs will come before studies”he said.

The student nevertheless hopes that the war will end, that the inhabitants of Gaza will stop suffering and that he will be able to “achieve your dreams and goals in university life” that he planned.

The paramedic and her five children

Maha Wafi loves her job as an ambulance driver in Khan Younès.

She also loves life with Anis, her husband of twenty-four years, their five children and their beautiful house on the west side of the city.

But after the start of the war, says this 43-year-old woman, the pressure ” double “ work and family life became more difficult due to her family’s move to a tent camp and her husband’s arrest on December 2.

Since then, she has had to face the difficulties of war while working and caring for her five children alone.

“You live in a tent (…), you have to bring water, get gasoline, light a fire and face all the difficulties”she said, remembering the winter months before the war, when she took advantage of the mild weather to spend time with her children.

“At the end of the day, it’s life in a camp”she blurted.

“All this puts mental pressure on a working woman”adds Ms. Wafi, sitting next to her ambulance.

Since October 7, she has seen “difficult scenes like body parts, wounds, martyrs”. She narrowly escaped death when a car was hit by a strike right next to her ambulance.

But above all, she hopes that her husband, “a selfless person who is dedicated to helping others”will be released.

The father started from scratch several times

Before the start of the war, Maher Zino, 39, worked as a civil servant. “With a decent salary, doing well”he and his wife Fatima raised their three children in the northern Gaza City.

A year later, his family was displaced “so many times it’s hard to count”he told AFP from his shelter in an olive grove in central Gaza.

Moving from Gaza to Khan Yunis, Rafah and back to central Gaza, the family had to start from scratch many times, “put up a tent, build a bathroom, buy furniture and clothes”he says.

On several occasions, the family found themselves without resources and sleeping on the street. Mr. Zino felt helpless, he who had not “never needed anyone”.

“I became a beggar, I would reach out to people, I had to ask for blankets to cover my children, find charities that could give me a plate of food just so my children would have something to eat”he said.

“This is what the war did to us”he adds from his new shelter where, with his wife, they have managed to create a semblance of family life, with a place to sleep, a water tank and an outdoor toilet.

Like Maha Wafi, Mr. Zino hopes for only one thing: “return to the situation before October 7”.