Dreams in the middle of the rubble: Gaza women talk about houses, loss and hungry children

In Gaza City, families living in tents reveal a shared and dark reality.

Many have been forced to flee the fights of tens of times. Most are homeless and hungry while facing an uncertain future.

Khadija Manoun: Kitchen of the remains of life

Khadija Manoun said that she and her family had moved more than 20 times, from Jabalia in the north of the Gaza Strip in a building destroyed in west of Gaza, in search of a shelter. She had had a new fully furnished house, which she had built with a bank loan.

“I provided my house well, with tiles and electrical devices,” she said. “It’s been only three years since I had the house. Then the war came and everything was lost. ”

Today, everything has changed, said Ms. Manoun. Its spacious and fully equipped kitchen is now just a corner in the rubble, where a lonely soap dish borrowed from a neighbor is seated. Metal utensils have been replaced by plastic tea containers to serve 10 people.

The bathroom was reduced to a corner covered with pieces of fabric that had been blankets. His dressing room is now home to shreds.

“It is now my closet where I put everything,” she said. “I had a room that cost me 10,000 shekels.”

His family sleeps on simple mattresses. Drinking water is a luxury Khadija pursues, flowing between trucks, often returning with empty containers.

In the middle of all this, she sometimes remembers, scrolling the photos on her mobile phone from her old house and the meals they ate.

Badriya Barawi: exhausted by hunger

In his modest tent on the beach west of Gaza City, Badriya Barawi, Beit Lahia, is, arranging what remains of her life. Tears flow from his eyes.

“Have mercy on us,” she said. “We are fed up and exhausted, mentally and physically. We can no longer bear it. How long will this life continue? ”

She says her children cry from heat and hunger.

“We haven’t had bread for three days. This morning, I nourished children’s hummus, but is it enough for their stomach? said Ms. Barawi, who suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes.

She said she collapses daily for lack of food.

Hiyam Zayed: Garden of Broken Dreams

In a neighboring tent, Hiyam Zayed and his eight daughters eat a lens soup without bread. Describing her old house, she said there were six bedrooms and a garden.

“I was happy with me,” she said. “My daughters and I am amused there. They played on the roof or inside the rooms. We had a beautiful garden in front of the house, and we cultivated plants and ate its products and raised with chickens. My daughters were very happy. We have nourished the best food and dressed them in the best clothes. ”

She also said that she had a washing machine, a fully equipped kitchen and a “goodie” refrigerator.

Now everything has gone.

“No food, no washing machine, no feelings: we have become depressed,” she added.

“My daughters wear the worst clothes. I can’t find a way to bathe them. I used to light the water tap at home and the water would run to drink or bathe. Now we live in a tent in the sand. I light a fire to cook after getting used to gas. I borrow utensils. “

“How do we want to blame what happened and who is responsible?” Ms. Zayed asked. “What is my fault and the fault of my children when we move from one place to another and they die of hunger?”

Mass displacement

According to UN reports, more than two million Palestinians – the population of Gaza – live in around 15% of the strip area after the war, the general destruction of infrastructure and houses.

International organizations have warned that the continuation of the conflict is threatening to have short -term “catastrophic consequences”.

This includes a serious impact on the mental and physical health of children, the spread of the disease and the disintegration of social structures.

This in the midst of the absence of any clear path towards a political or humanitarian solution.