The new normal in Gaza: ‘I Share a Tent With 10 Other People’

When war broke out in Gaza three years ago, Haneen Hijazi was spending an ordinary evening at home.

She had been helping her eldest daughter Hawa revise for a social studies exam and in the middle of baking sweet treats in the kitchen for her son Saif to take to school.

‘It was a beautiful day,’ Haneen tells Metro.

But then, as bombs began to rain down and rockets soared through the sky, any sense of normality and comfort vanished overnight.

‘The situation turned drastically. We were besieged in our home by the army,’ she explains.

Since then, Haneen’s family have been constantly running from the conflict, trying to find somewhere to settle, while enduring ‘the harshest living conditions we had never known.’

Haneen’s five-year-old daughter Kawthar has borne the brunt of the war, suffering from malnourishment and sleeping problems brought on by the fear of bombings and her family being harmed.

This latest conflict began after Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. In response, Israel launched a large-scale military campaign within hours, which has seen more than 64,000 children alone killed or injured, according to Unicef.

The war has also left Gaza facing a severe humanitarian crisis, with most of its population homeless and large areas of housing and essential infrastructure damaged or destroyed.

Around 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.1 million people remain displaced, many living in overcrowded temporary shelters with inadequate access to clean water, sanitation or healthcare.

‘The war came like a fierce gale’

Food is scarce, with the UN estimating that two-thirds of the population are facing emergency levels of hunger. Hospitals remain severely strained, medicines are in short supply while contaminated water, sewage and poor living conditions increase the risk of disease.

‘Before, we had all we needed: food, clothing, medical care, electricity, water, and all the other facets of a normal existence. It was a beautiful life. Then the war came like a fierce gale, destroying the garden and scattering the blossoms,’ Haneen says.

After multiple displacements, she and her family have since returned to their apartment which, while it is still standing, bears the scars of what she calls ‘cursed gunfire and shrapnel’.

Nonetheless, life is exhausting. Every day, she and her son bring multiple buckets of water up to their fourth floor apartment, collected from a shared tap in the street, where fights often break out as neighbours wait their turn.

‘I wake up at the dawn call to prayer, pray, and attend to my duties: taking my daughter to kindergarten, going to the market, baking bread for my children, filling up with salty water, rushing to get fresh water, doing the laundry, lighting the fire to cook. It is a day of endless tasks.’

Many of their windows are broken and, despite their efforts to make repairs, ‘the spectre of death and destruction haunts me everywhere,’ Haneen says.

Her only saving grace is that she has at least been able to return to her home.

‘Tent life takes a heavy toll on my elderly mother’

Three years after the conflict started, 52-year-old Abeer Issa still lives under canvas with ten other adults.

‘Our worn-out tent is no larger than 30 square metres. It contains only the barest essentials, bedding unfit for sleeping and no proper ventilation,’ she explains.

Originally from Rafah, Abeer and her family fled their home when the war broke out. It was so sudden, they couldn’t take any belongings, and she now lives with her elderly mother, five sisters and four brothers. Two of her sisters died in the conflict.

The family are beset by gas shortages and a lack of clean water – even cooking a basic meal is a struggle.

‘My elderly mother lives with me; she suffers from chronic illnesses and a mobility impairment, and the hardships of tent life take a heavy toll on her,’ Abeer says.

Before the war, Abeer lived a quiet, stable life and loved her job teaching, something she has has recently gone back to at a new early learning centre build by charity Theirworld. She has to walk an hour just to get to the bus stop to begin her journey there.

‘Living in a tent makes it impossible to prepare teaching plans,’ Abeer explains. ‘The lack of internet and electricity prevents me from creating the appropriate educational materials I used to produce before the war, back when I had access to a laptop and libraries.’

For Abeer, it is important to continue supporting children in Gaza who, for the last three years, have experienced unimaginable ordeals.

Growing up without adequate nutrition, care, safety and early learning opportunities, many of them live in constant fear. Some 58,000 children have lost one or both parents, and more are unaccompanied or separated, according to Theirworld.

Last month, the charity opened 12 temporary early learning centres across two locations in Gaza in response to the severe early childhood development crisis affecting the region’s children.

For many youngsters, the centres provide the first opportunity since the war began to learn alongside other children, follow a daily routine and simply play.

‘I miss my former life, the quiet of my home’

One of the beneficiaries is five-year-old Kawthar, Haneen’s daughter, whose personality has been transformed since going to kindergarten.

Haneen says: ‘During that first month, her psychological well-being improved. She became more active and started playing. She became more confident and started doing things independently at home. She now enjoys colouring, drawing and writing.’

For Haneen, it is the sign of a little hope.

‘I miss my former life, the quiet of my home, the privacy, and the comfort. I miss electricity, television, running taps and a tank full of fresh water, the refrigerator, and cold water in the summer.

‘I long for the sweets I used to make with love; I long for my old self, for the state of mind that has been shattered. I miss me.

‘But I hope our lives return to how they used to be; I wish for peace, stability, and safety to return to our lives.’

To find out more, go to theirworld.org/conflict

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