MUWASI, Gaza Strip (AP) — Members of the Abu Jarad family are stranded in a corner of the southern Gaza Strip, sticking to a strict survival routine.
They fled their comfortable three-bedroom home in northern Gaza after war broke out between Israel and Hamas nearly three months ago. The family of ten is now crammed into a 16 square meter tent on a rubbish-strewn sandy plot that is part of a sprawling camp of displaced Palestinians.
Each family member is assigned daily tasks, from gathering twigs to build a fire for cooking to scouring the town's markets for vegetables. But her best efforts cannot hide her desperation.
At night, “dogs hover over the tents,” said Awatif Abu Jarad, an older family member. “We live like dogs!”
Palestinians seeking refuge in southern Gaza say every day has become a struggle for food, water, medicine and functioning toilets. At the same time, they live in fear of Israeli air strikes and the growing threat of disease.
The Israeli bombardment and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, now in its 13th week, has pushed almost all Palestinians into the southern town of Rafah on the Egyptian border. According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the area had a population of around 280,000 before the war, a number that has risen to over 1 million in recent days.
Rafah's apartment blocks are full of people, often extended families, who have opened their doors to displaced relatives. Thousands of nylon tents have sprung up west of the city. Despite the cool and often rainy winter weather, thousands more people sleep outdoors.
Most of the northern Gaza Strip is now under the control of the Israeli army, which pushed Palestinians to evacuate to the south at the start of the war. As the war progressed, more and more evacuation orders were issued for areas in the south, forcing Palestinian civilians to crowd into smaller and smaller areas, including Rafah and a nearby stretch of land called Muwasi. Even these supposedly safe places are often hit by airstrikes and shelling.
The war broke out on October 7 after Hamas militants stormed southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping 240 others. More than 22,400 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, according to the health ministry in Hamas-controlled territory, which makes no distinction between civilians and combatants.
According to Nouman, Awatif's brother, the conflict drove the family across the Gaza Strip. They fled their home in the northern border town of Beit Hanoun on the first day of the war and stayed with a relative in the nearby town of Beit Lahia.
Six days later, the intensity of Israeli attacks in the border area sent them south to Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City. As people began evacuating the hospital two days later, they made the 10-kilometer walk to the Nuseirat urban refugee camp in central Gaza.
They remained in a cramped UN school building in Nuseirat for more than two months, but left on December 23 as the Israeli army turned its attention to Hamas targets in refugee camps in central Gaza.
They fled to Muwasi on December 23, believing it was the safest option. The first night they slept outside. They then bought nylon and wood from a Rafah market to build a tent.
Nouman, an accountant, sleeps on the nylon floor with his wife, sister, six daughters and a grandchild. You sleep on your side to save space.
He said the tent cost 1,000 shekels, about $276. “It’s completely crazy,” he said. In Rafah's demand-driven war economy, larger prefabricated family tents now cost $800 to $1,400.
The family's distress begins at 5 a.m. Nouman said his first task was to light a small fire to cook breakfast while his wife and daughters knead the dough for flatbread and then wash their utensils and the metal hotplate.
After eating, their attention turns to fetching water and food, tasks that take up most of the day's hours.
Nouman said he and several of his younger relatives collected jugs of water from one of the public pipes nearby, water used exclusively for washing and not suitable for drinking. Next, they head to one of the dozens of drinking water tankers dotted around the city, where they wait in line for hours.
A gallon of drinking water costs one shekel, or 28 cents. Some are desperate for cash and are lining up just to sell their premises.
After collecting water, family members move between several open markets to look for vegetables, flour and canned goods for dinner. Meanwhile, Nouman is busy searching the ground for twigs and pieces of wood to light a fire.
Food prices have skyrocketed. Gaza is suffering from acute food and medicine shortages and relies largely on aid and supplies arriving through two border crossings, one Egyptian and one Israeli, as well as what was grown in the recent harvest. More than half a million people in Gaza – about a quarter of the population – are starving, the United Nations said in late December.
Dalia Abu Samhadana, a young mother seeking refuge with her uncle's family in a crowded house of 20 in Rafah, says the only staples at her local market are tomatoes, onions, eggplant, oranges and flour. All are practically priceless.
A 25-kilogram bag of flour cost about $10 before October 7. Since then it has fluctuated between $40 and $100.
“My money is almost gone,” said Abu Samhadana, unsure how she will feed her daughter.
Displaced Palestinians in Rafah are eligible for free assistance if they register with the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, which distributes flour, blankets and medical supplies in 14 locations in the southern Gaza Strip. They often stand in line for hours waiting for relief supplies to be distributed.
Abu Samhadana, originally from the nearby southern town of Khan Younis, said she tried several times to sign up for free assistance but was turned away due to a lack of supplies.
According to Juliette Touma, its communications director, the UN agency is simply overwhelmed and is already supporting 1.8 million people in Gaza. She said she didn't know whether the agency had stopped registering new help seekers.
With few options left, some hungry Palestinians in Rafah resorted to collecting packages from passing aid trucks. The UN refugee agency confirmed that some aid supplies had been stolen from moving trucks, but did not provide details.
Hamas police officers escorting aid trucks from border crossings to UN warehouses were seen beating people, mostly teenagers, as they tried to grab whatever they could. In some cases they fired shots into the air. In one incident, a 13-year-old boy was killed when Hamas police opened fire.
Meanwhile, health officials warn of an increasing spread of disease, particularly among children.
The World Health Organization has reported tens of thousands of cases of upper respiratory infections, diarrhea, lice, scabies, chickenpox, skin rashes and meningitis in UN shelters.
The rapid spread of the disease is largely due to overcrowding and poor hygiene due to the lack of toilets and water for washing.
The Abu Jarad family built their own makeshift toilet attached to the tent to avoid communal toilets. However, the family is susceptible to illness.
“My granddaughter is 10 months old and since the day we came here she has been suffering from weight loss and diarrhea,” said Majeda, Nouman’s wife.
Going to the pharmacy doesn't help much. “We can’t find (appropriate) medication,” she said.