GAZA, (PIC)
In Gaza, where ash intersects with memory, the features of a highly cruel human reality are formed, in which scenes of displacement and expulsion return to impose their daily presence inside tents that do not protect against the heat of summer or the cold of winter.
Here, time does not seem to be merely the passing of days, but rather a continuous reproduction of an old pain renewed in more acute forms, while the inhabitants try to cling to what remains of the details of life amidst widespread destruction and a sharp shortage of life requirements.
In the tent children ask when will we return home?
Inside a simple tent west of Gaza City, Umm Yazan al-Haj tries to maintain the cohesion of her family after losing her husband at the beginning of the Israeli aggression.
Sitting on the floor of her tent, she said, “We no longer live a normal life, every day begins with the pursuit of water and food, and even sleep is no longer safe as it used to be.”
She added that her children ask her when they will return home, “and I have no answer except silence.”
The scenes of displacement tents brought back to memory the reality of expulsion during the Palestinian Nakba, for after 78 years since the first expulsion in 1948, the Palestinian finds himself facing continuous attempts to uproot him from his land, but with more advanced and lethal tools based on comprehensive war, siege, and systematic destruction of life requirements.
Extended chapters of the Nakba
In a scene that does not differ much from thousands of families, the suffering of daily displacement is repeated in various areas of the Strip, where tents have turned into long-term temporary shelters for about two million Palestinians, lacking the simplest requirements of a dignified life.
Salim Nasser, a displaced person from northern Gaza, said, “We used to think that the Nakba was an event that ended in history books, but we are living it now with all its details inside the tents.”
He added, “Nothing is left for us except a tent that does not protect us from heat or cold, but it has become all we own.”
Catastrophic health and humanitarian situation
With the deterioration of infrastructure, the humanitarian situation becomes more complicated, especially in light of water shortages, environmental pollution, and the spread of insects and rodents, which led to the outbreak of various diseases among the population inside places of displacement.
In this context, Dr. Mohammed Abu Nada, head of the Gaza Cancer Center, said, “The health sector in Gaza faces unprecedented pressure as a result of the large increase in the numbers of patients and wounded, in light of a sharp shortage of medicines and basic medical supplies, and the disruption of many vital devices inside hospitals.”
He added, “We work in extremely difficult conditions, where the availability of medicines has declined, especially chronic treatments such as cancer medicines and antibiotics, which puts patients’ lives in direct danger.”
He continued, “Also, the electricity outage and fuel shortage greatly affect the work of vital departments such as operating rooms, intensive care, and examination and diagnostic devices, which doubles the complexity of the health situation.”
He concluded by saying, “If this reality continues without urgent intervention, we fear a greater collapse of the health system, and an increase in mortality rates due to diseases that could have been treated under normal conditions.”
The pain is not limited to patients only, but extends to include the educational sector as well, where thousands of children lost their opportunities for education after widespread destruction of schools and the conversion of many of them into shelter centers.
Teacher Najla Siam said, “Children here have lost a lot of their childhood, but despite that, they still cling to learning in the extremely difficult conditions.”
She added, “We try to give them a small space of hope inside tents that have turned into classrooms, despite all the loss and destruction around them.”
According to field data, the vast majority of schools in the Strip suffered severe damage, making the educational process face unprecedented challenges in its history.
