With food and shelter scarce in Gaza, Palestinians turn to each other

Amid missile strikes, explosions, and a total siege, two things are clear for the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip:

There is nowhere safe in Gaza.

And the only relief that can be found is in one another.  

Palestinians confronting an ongoing Israeli bombing campaign and the feeling they’ve been abandoned to face a war zone on their own are turning to each other to share what little shelter, water, and food they can.

In the south – the region to which the Israeli military urged 1.1 million residents of Gaza City and northern Gaza to evacuate as it ramped up its response to Hamas’ massacre of 1,400 Israelis – heavy bombing continued through Friday.

The border town of Rafah, where thousands of Palestinians and dual nationals have been waiting for the crossing into Egypt to open, continued to be hit with Israeli missile strikes. Israel says it is targeting Hamas positions, structures, and intelligence infrastructure.  

A series of Israeli airstrikes that hit residential areas in Rafah Thursday morning killed 30 people, according to eyewitnesses and the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA. As of Friday, Israel’s eight-day military campaign had killed more than 4,100 people, including more than 1,000 children, Palestinian health officials said.

Twenty trucks packed with humanitarian aid, which U.S. President Joe Biden had vowed would enter Gaza soon and which the United Nations’ World Health Organization described as a “drop in the ocean of need,” remained stalled on the Egyptian side of the border late Friday amid an impasse between Egypt and Israel over a cease-fire, aid distribution, weapons screening, and the exit of dual nationals.

Speaking Friday at the Rafah crossing, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said the aid was facing “restrictions” from governments, without elaborating. 

“We are actively engaging with all the parties,” he said. “We need these trucks moving as soon as possible.”

Egyptian protesters gathered at the crossing, one of hundreds of protests across the Arab world, and shook the gates, demanding, “Open Rafah.”

Also Friday, an American mother and daughter taken hostage along with some 200 others in the Hamas incursion Oct. 7 were back in Israel after being released by Hamas. President Biden issued a statement thanking the governments of Qatar and Israel “for their partnership in this work.”

Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials said seven hospitals and 21 health centers ceased operations due to the lack of electricity and fuel. Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City was set to run out of fuel for its generator by late Friday, according to Doctors Without Borders, which warned that without electricity, “many patients will die.”

Sleeping in a hair salon

With nowhere to turn, Palestinian civilians are turning to each other and trying to share what little they have with strangers.

Compassion and generosity may not keep them safe, but residents say they believe this compassion is restoring some hope in a situation where little can be found. And they say it can save some lives – at least for one more day.

At the Tahrir Salon in Deir al-Balah, between salon chairs, next to curved sinks and cabinets packed with makeup, and below wall-mounted hair dryers, a dozen men sleep on mattresses on the floor.

Many had never entered a beauty salon in their lives. Now, with their wives and children sleeping in the upstairs room, it is their temporary home.   

Just a few weeks ago, entrepreneur Tahrir Atrash ran the most bustling women’s salon in this southern central Gaza town. Once famous for its manicures, hair-straightening, and bridal makeup, it is now known across Gaza as a safe haven.

Ms. Atrash, a 37-year-old mother of three, runs a makeshift evacuee shelter from her ground-floor salon and upstairs apartment, housing five families and 30 people in 2,150 square feet.

“People for people, neighbor for neighbor, friend for friend,” Ms. Atrash says of her philosophy as she cuts oranges for her live-in guests.

She opened the unexpected safehouse on the second day of the war on Oct. 8, when Israel’s military response to the Hamas massacre intensified in Gaza City and the upscale neighborhood of Rimali, where Ms. Atrash’s friend Fathiyya lived. She immediately extended an invitation to Fathiyya, whom she had met while taking a beautician course in Turkey in 2022, to stay with her.

When Israel dropped leaflets urging people in Gaza to head south, Fathiyya’s family members headed to seek shelter at schools run by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinians, which in less than 48 hours hosted thousands of people. She decided to stay with her friend.  

“I did not want to go to an UNRWA school; I had heard that they are overcrowded. I needed to feel home, to have some privacy,” says Fathiyya, who declined to give her family name. “I never imagined that friendship forged by a chance meeting would provide me with shelter in such a dire time.”

Donated bedding

As stories of other evacuees in need spread among family and acquaintances, Ms. Atrash opened her upstairs apartment as well, calling on relatives to donate blankets and mattresses for the daily arrival of evacuees.

Jihan Alajil, an acquaintance of Ms. Atrash, decided to take her son, pregnant daughter-in-law, and their three children to the Tahrir Salon after their Gaza City home was hit by what they say was white phosphorous. 

When they arrived, Ms. Atrash met them at the door with a simple welcoming message: “If this world is not enough to protect you, I will shelter you in my heart.”

“Her extraordinary acts of kindness gave me a glimmer of hope after I had lost it,” says Ms. Alajil.

When Azhar Abu Abdo and her family arrived in Deir al-Balah from Gaza City with nothing more than the clothes they were wearing, they were told there was one place to go: the salon.

“Tahrir’s acts during these trying times are a testament to the strength of the human spirit. She is a beacon of hope, inspiring others to extend a helping hand and reaffirming the importance of solidarity in times of crisis,” says Ms. Abu Abdo.

Other Palestinians in Gaza are opening seaside vacation rentals to families. And those with date palms and date farms are putting out boxes of freshly picked dates on the street for those that are hungry.

Mohammed Emawi’s catering business used to churn out giant rice-and-chicken platters for weddings and other large events in southern Gaza.

Now he is using his stockpile of wood to cook for families without fuel who come to him with bags of dry goods and is also dipping into his own stock to feed people.  

With no refrigeration available across the besieged Gaza Strip, he has devised a system to send leftover food to hungry families in the area as fast as possible.

Today, his “communal kitchen” is taking food donations and becoming a hub for hungry people.

But, he warns, he is close to using up his stock of rice, and his generosity may be hard to maintain as food supplies dwindle and the aid impasse has yet to be broken.

Solar solution

Other Gaza residents are literally bringing light to where there is darkness, widespread in the Gaza Strip with power from Israel cut and fuel for generators running out.

Abdul Fattah Ibrahim, a Deir al-Balah resident who has four solar panels affixed to his roof, has opened up his home to strangers.

In the afternoon, people shuffle in and out nonstop with mobile phones, laptops, batteries, and battery-powered lights to get as much of a charge as possible before sunset.

“I noticed how people struggled during power outages,” Mr. Ibrahim says. “I realized I could make a positive impact by offering them a reliable charging solution.

“My solar power system has been a blessing, and I wanted to share that blessing with others,” he says.

Nabil Tawfiq, a local resident, is grateful: “With the blackout, I was worried about being unable to contact my family,” who live elsewhere in Gaza. “Thanks to Abdul Fattah’s solar panels, I can charge my phone and keep a light on.”

Editor's note: This story was updated to correct the spelling of the Palestinian news agency, WAFA.