GAZA, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- After hours of searching, Said Ghanim, a father of six, finally found refuge in the ruins of a destroyed house to shelter his family.
The 50-year-old man once believed that innocent civilians like his family would be spared from Israeli attacks. However, he was ultimately left no choice but to leave their home in the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza Strip.
"I asked them where I should go as all places in Gaza are not safe, and I begged them to leave us in our house, but the soldiers directed their weapons on my head and told me if I did not leave the area, they would kill all of us," Ghanim recalled.
Explosions and clashes between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants provided the chaotic backdrop of their escape, during which his children were terrified by the sight of casualties left unburied on the streets.
Like tens of thousands of displaced families in Gaza, they set out on their journey without knowing where fate would lead them.
When Ghanim arrived in Gaza City, he breathed a sigh of relief, grateful that his family had survived. However, it didn't take long before the cruel reality to crawl back and sink in -- after spending a harrowing night shivering on a public street, they now urgently needed a refuge.
Ghanim avoided any sheltering schools as "the army attacked most of them."
Following an exhaustive search, they found a severely damaged three-story building with one room that seemed to be a feasible option for accommodation.
"It does not have a bathroom or a kitchen, but we do not have the luxury of the choice," Shadia, Ghanim's wife, told Xinhua as she cooked on firewood.
"What sin did we commit to live in such suffering and displacement?" the 49-year-old woman who had lost more than 20 kg of her weight wondered.
Far from unique, Ghanim was among the dozens of other displaced individuals who, with little alternative, opted for the vacant homes whose owners too were forced to seek refuge elsewhere.
Since Oct. 5 this year, the Israeli army has been carrying out a large-scale military attack against Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip.
Between 100,000 and 131,000 people have been displaced since Oct. 6, arriving at various locations in western and northern Gaza City, where essential resources such as shelter, water, and health care are critically scarce, according to an update released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Tuesday.
Ghassan Hanoun, a resident of the Jabalia refugee camp, found shelter in the al-Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City to live in with his eight-member family.
"I spent many days cleaning rubble to keep a room habitable for my kids. When I look at them, I cry over our dire situation in the war," the 35-year-old man told Xinhua.
"Our life before the war was beautiful in every sense of the word. We had houses, neighborhoods, restaurants, streets, and wonderful cities," he recalled. Now living in a semi-destroyed house without basic necessities, he lost nearly half his body weight due to hunger.
"We are forced to dig a well in the sand to use as a restroom, and to rely on wood for cooking, if there was any food to cook at all," he said.
That was no exaggeration. According to a hunger report released by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification in late October, nearly 2 million people, more than 90 percent of the population, are expected to face severe food insecurity between November 2024 and April 2025.
In October, only 5,000 metric tons of food were delivered to Gaza -- just one-fifth of the essential food assistance needed for the 1.1 million people reliant on the World Food Programme's lifesaving support.
With resources dwindling and no clear end in sight, families like Ghassan's and Ghanim's are left to navigate an increasingly uncertain future, struggling for survival amid the devastation.
