Gaza residents face continuing hardship amid fragile ceasefire

As winter approaches and the fragile ceasefire in Gaza is tested daily, Palestinians living there face rubble, loss, and hardship.

Families are forced to live with no electricity, water, or sanitation, cooking on open fires in windowless, wall-less buildings that could collapse at any moment.

It is all that remains of their homes after Israel’s bombardment of the enclave and conditions are extremely difficult says Palestinian woman, Walaa Al-Alwan.

"We suffer from everything. My children are exhausted from fetching water. We have no income, and my husband was injured during the war,” she says.

As she cooks a meal over a fire on the floor of her home, Al-Alwan says her children have resorted to selling firewood to get some money.

She adds that the family are hoping to be offered a tent or any kind of shelter assistance as their house was destroyed in the war, leaving them with no belongings.

“The house is dangerous. If we could get a tent, we wouldn’t stay here. The roof is collapsing, the situation is terrible,” she says.

With winter approaching, Al-Alwan is worried that rainwater “will flood inside” through the partial roof and open walls.

“Our homes have become nothing,” she says, “No shelter, no electricity, nothing at all."

Gazans are anxiously waiting for the second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel to start.

This should see the start of the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and, along with it, the hope that their lives may one day return to normal.