Gaza is slowly moving beyond survival mode — 3 years after the war began
As Israelis and Palestinians mark the sombre anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that began the three-year war between Israel and Hamas, people in Gaza are also starting to look to the future. CBC News spoke with six people in Gaza to ask them how they’re managing with shelter, food and education.
Day-to-day life still focused on food and shelter, but many Palestinians are starting to look to the future
Yasmine Hassan · CBC News
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The roads in Gaza are still littered with rubble, garbage and the ruins of lopsided buildings. But three years into the Israel-Hamas war and almost a year into the fragile ceasefire, the airstrikes, bombs and wails of people calling for loved ones have faded. Now, the air is filled with distant chatter, cars honking and the sounds of life.
On Wednesday, Israelis and Palestinians will mark the sombre anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, that claimed the lives of 1,200 people, with 251 hostages in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. The war has left some 74,245 people dead in Gaza, according to the local health ministry. Since the Oct. 11 ceasefire last year, the ministry says 1,462 Palestinians have been killed.
Today, the enclave is slowly moving beyond survival mode as many civilians begin to think about the future, looking for viable longer-term housing and considering sending kids back to school. CBC News spoke with six people in Gaza to ask them how they’re managing with shelter, food and education.
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Shelter still at a premium
Throughout the war, Gazans were constantly displaced and many camps popped up throughout the enclave as people sought safe spaces. Since the ceasefire, these displacements have become less frequent and many are now considering where to set up more permanent lodgings.
Mohamed Al-Arabeed, 44, and his family of eight have been living at the Al-Maqousi camp near Gaza City for three years. But the tent that cost him 2,000 shekels (about $935 Cdn) is now falling apart at the seams.
Mohamed Al-Arabeed lives with his family in the Al-Maqousi camp near Gaza City. He says he's been patching up his tent and trying to keep it together after it went through three winters in Gaza. (Mohamed El Saife/CBC)
"We’re piling nylon on it to get through the winter,” he told CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife earlier this month.
Gaza City is near the yellow line signifying the edge of Israeli military control in the strip. Al-Arabeed says people are still scared to run errands in case they get caught in fighting or a strike.
"We don't know how long we will stay like this," he said. "We are not guilty of what happened or what might happen."
In another part of Gaza City, Abdullah Abu Hajar, 47, lives in a partially collapsed building with his family of eight. Red spray paint marking the building reads, in Arabic, "dangerous, could collapse."
Officials in Gaza City used red spray paint to mark the building where Abdullah Abu Hajar and his family live as 'dangerous, could collapse.' He says the 17 families living in the building say they have nowhere else to go. (Mohamed El Saife/CBC)
The walls are still standing but some of the floors are tilted and fold together like an accordion.
Abu Hajar told CBC News last week that the 17 families living there all feel they have nowhere else to go.
"I'm scared, I don't sleep. I stay up all night to check on people in the building."
He says it shakes sometimes, and when it gets very bad, he and others call on their wives and children to prepare to leave.
Food options limited, pricey
In August 2025, a global hunger monitor reported that famine conditions existed in Gaza City. It was the first official confirmation of famine after months of warnings by aid groups that the war and Israel's border restrictions were causing starvation among Palestinians, particularly children.
In December 2024, when Mohammed Barghout, took CBC News to Gaza City's market, he found steep prices for the little food available and spent 200 shekels (about $93 Cdn) on just a plate of cooked rice and some diapers.
When the 49-year-old father of four returned for a shopping trip last month, he saw eggplants, potatoes and tomatoes. He says while there may be more options, they're still not very affordable.
"I don't see many people," Barghout said. "Maybe they don't have money to buy things."
Barghout looks at eggs at the Gaza City market late last month. Currently, two dozen eggs costs 30 shekels, or about $14 Cdn. The father of four says it would cost about 500 shekels ($234 Cdn) to feed his family breakfast, and that's something he can't afford. (Mohamed El Saife/CBC)
Today, two dozen eggs cost 30 shekels, or about $14 Cdn, while one potato is five shekels, about $2.35 Cdn.
While he visits many stalls to ask for prices, Barghout often leaves without buying. "I want to buy mangoes for my children, but I cannot afford it, so I will wait."
He leaves with just three potatoes for his whole family.
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Many in Gaza don’t bother with the market at all.
Late last month, Ola Al-Masri was using the flour she received from an aid package to bake bread on an open flame. She and her husband live in Khan Younis with their three children in the ruins of Al-Aqsa University.
The Al-Masris still rely heavily on food distribution points set up by Palestinians who cook soups and stews in batches and hand them out to those in need.
A boy reaches out with a bucket in hand at a food distribution centre west of Khan Younis in Gaza in November 2024. (Mohamed El Saife/CBC)
Images of people crowding these distribution points — piling on top of each other, waving pots and screaming for their portions — became synonymous with the struggle for food during the war.
Things look much the same today.
Ola is first in line at the fence as a crowd gathers. She waves her pot until she gets the attention of a volunteer who doles out a portion of the day's meal, a soup that will be lunch and dinner for her family. After securing one portion, she rejoins the line, hoping she might get more.
"This is my routine every day," she said. "I wait here for two or three hours, waiting for food."
Education a priority again
Back in Gaza City, Rasha Al-Dos, 44, gets her four children ready for school at the parking garage she converted into rooms using tarps and wood.
This morning, she sends her youngest son, four-year-old Munzer, to his nearby kindergarten class before getting ready for school herself.
After losing her husband during the war, Al-Dos returned to her work as a teacher at Warda al-Huda private school, about a 10-minute bus ride away.
Rasha Al-Dos teaches students in her classroom at Warda Al-Huda, a private school in Gaza City last month. She returned to teaching to support her four children after her husband died during the war. (Mohamed El Saife/CBC)
Though many buildings in Gaza were reduced to rubble, her school didn't suffer as much damage. Al-Dos’s classroom is mostly intact, but for one blown-out wall that's covered by a white tarp painted with the English and Arabic alphabet.
Al-Dos says about a quarter of the students she taught before the war did not survive.
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Her students today are lucky, she says, as many can’t afford to return to traditional school and instead attend informal classes in tents.
After three years with no education at all, she's just grateful to be teaching again.
"Alhamdulillah, we have the power and the strength to … go on and teach our children."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Yasmine Hassan is a producer in CBC's Ottawa bureau. From there, she covers developments inside Gaza and the West Bank related to the Israel-Hamas war. If you have a story idea, send news tips in English or Arabic to yasmine.hassan@cbc.ca.
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