How are people in the Gaza Strip living two years after the war?

Dr. Ibrahim Ibrash

I am not speaking here about the general political and social situation, nor about the war of annihilation, destruction and starvation and everything the news and satellite channels report, but about people’s livelihoods — where they obtain money to meet their basic needs after two years of war and amid the near absence of everything or its availability only at exorbitant prices. In the Gaza Strip more than 90% of the population lost their source of income after the war.

Farmers lost their land because of the occupation or the land became unfit for cultivation due to army operations and destruction of water wells; workers lost their jobs because of ongoing displacement and the destruction of factories and workshops; merchants closed their shops because of displacement, loss of stock and absence of buyers; the middle class — doctors, university professors, teachers, lawyers, engineers and the like — also lost their livelihoods. Businessmen saw their factories destroyed and their import-export projects halted, and those working in the fishing industry lost their work because the sea was closed to them and they were targeted by naval warships. Even the small percentage of Palestinian Authority employees who remain — no more than 25,000 — receive 50% of their salaries, and when they withdraw or spend them the amount is halved because of lack of liquidity and the greed of money-changers and traders. UNRWA has stopped providing basic food aid to the majority of the territory’s refugee population. There is a limited number of staff from international organizations, especially UNRWA, and those working with news agencies and foreign satellite channels. A significant portion of people affiliated with parties and factions — Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PLO factions — used to receive salaries and in-kind assistance, which stopped at the outbreak of war. Less than 30% shelter in stone houses or in the ruins of houses, either owned or rented; the rest live in tents that do not protect them from winter cold or summer heat, and even these people have lost the ability to buy tents or rent land to pitch them. Almost the entire territory lacks drinking-water networks and sewage systems, in addition to power cuts, disruption of university and school education for two years, destruction of hospitals, lack of medical services and the loss of most skilled professionals — doctors, engineers, scientists and professors — through death, captivity or emigration. Reports from international organizations describe all of this in detail.

Nevertheless, a small, defined group grew wealthy during the war and amassed millions at the expense of the people’s suffering. These include thieves and aid-traffickers and those who call themselves “initiators,” who open accounts in foreign countries to collect donations for Gaza families who lost children or whose homes were destroyed, or to build a hospital, mosque, school, shelter or feeding center. They collected millions, and only a tiny fraction reached the needy; there are well-known names circulating among Gaza’s population. Currency exchangers also deduct as much as half of the amount on every money transfer.

The bottom line is that the vast majority of Gaza’s residents have been reduced to begging if an international benefactor happens to give alms, or they jostle around the U.S.-run distribution centers that hand out some aid — where dozens are killed daily in attempts to get a bag of flour or some canned food. In the displacement camps and tented sites in al-Mawasi and the central area, class and psychological differences between social groups have disappeared: former landlords and capitalists, doctors and university professors stand alongside camp youth, cart drivers, small-scale traders, informal transporters and sanitation workers. Everyone queues at charity kitchens to receive a bowl of lentils or rice!

When a people reach this point, we should not be surprised by some manifestations of a collapse in the moral and ethical system that Gaza’s residents once took pride in. With the struggle to survive and to provide food for their children, almost anything becomes permissible even …. Nor should we be surprised by the population’s rejection of both the occupation and Hamas’s authority and by their welcome of any ceasefire initiative, even one proposed by Trump. This painful reality does not negate the manifestations of heroism, courage, generosity and steadfastness for which the people of the Strip and the entire Palestinian people are known, but the people have a limited capacity for patience and endurance.