Three voices from Gaza:

What survival looks like after 15 months of war

By Sarah-Grace Mankarious, Abeer Salman, Eleanor Stubbs, Marco Chacón, Rachel Wilson, Kara Fox and Matt Dempsey, CNN

January 18, 2025

Under exceptional circumstances, ordinary people are taking extraordinary measures just to live.

Through the eyes of three Gazans, CNN has chronicled life in the besieged strip.

Belal Mortaja, Raghad Ezaat Hamouda and Rami Naser bring you into the heart of Gaza, where 15 months of Israeli airstrikes have decimated water, power and food sources.

While the news of the long-awaited ceasefire deal, agreed on Wednesday and due to come into effect from Sunday, will provide some relief, the immense humanitarian needs in Gaza will “take months, if not years” to address, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

For many Palestinians, the deal feels like one that has come too late.

Life for Mortaja, Hamouda and Naser — and the 2.1 million inhabitants of Gaza — has drastically changed.

Here’s a look inside a typical day from recent weeks.

Morning

"Good morning, Gaza,” Belal Mortaja says as he wakes up on a foggy morning to the muzzled sound of birdsong, drowned out by the buzz of Israeli drones.

Mortaja, 29, has been sharing an apartment with 13 relatives since being displaced. The photographer and journalist has moved 12 times since the war began and his home was bombed by Israel early in the war.

Mortaja is not alone: Few Gazans still live in the same home they did last year. According to the United Nations, 1.9 million people — 90% of Gaza’s population — have been displaced at least once since Israeli military operations were launched in the wake of Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Nearby, at the Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza City, 20-year-old Raghad Ezaat Hamouda is waking up in a tent, where she shelters with her parents and seven siblings.

“It’s very small, it’s not enough for my family,” says Hamouda, who has been displaced nine times.

The majority of displaced people are now living in “small, over-crowded makeshift shelters,” according to the Shelter Cluster, an inter-agency group that supports people affected by natural disasters and conflict. Yarmouk Stadium, where Hamouda currently lives, was once a sports venue, but is now home to thousands of displaced people.

These shelters vary from crumbling buildings to tents made of blankets and plastic sheets. “It's not like your proper tent where you go camping… a blow of wind could destroy everything,” says Mahmoud Shalabi of aid agency Medical Aid for Palestinians, who’s in northern Gaza.

Afternoon

Hamouda – like a lot of Gazans – makes the most of the warmer, light-filled hours, and heads to the market on Friday afternoons.

“Before the war, everyone could afford it,” Hamouda says of the fruit and vegetables available there. But nowadays, produce is so expensive most can’t.

Onions +1,485%

Potatoes +1,932%

Milk +15%

Chicken +475%

Tomatoes +1,745%

Green peppers +592%

Eggplant +2,292%

Oranges +949%

Sugar +1,202%

Eggs +1,852%

Rice +16%

Coffee +361%

100 ₪

Oct, 11

110 ₪

Nov, 22

120 ₪

Nov, 28

September, 2023

November, 2024

Meanwhile, prices for the food that is available change on a weekly, if not daily, basis.

Although availability varies across Gaza, the overall average cost of food and non-alcoholic drinks has risen more than fivefold since September 2023, the last month before the war, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).

This shopping basket of a dozen food items now costs around 687 shekels (₪), roughly $183, a 610% increase on September 2023.

This represents almost an entire pre-war average monthly wage in Gaza.

Source: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics

At the market, Hamouda is only able to find a bag of sugar for 150 shekels, approximately $40, a price she can’t afford.

Here, she drinks black tea in her tent as a drone buzzes overhead.

Not being able to drink sweet tea robs her of a small comfort and represents yet another way her life has changed, Hamouda says.

For lunch, Hamouda prepares a meager version of makloubeh, a traditional dish typically made with meat, vegetables and rice. It's the first time she could afford to buy onions in a year, she says.

One kilogram (2.2 lb) of onions was ₪3.22 ($0.86) before the war.

Now it costs 15 times more.

The typical diet for people in Gaza today is poor in diversity. Dominated by bread and canned pulses, dairy, meat, fruit and vegetables are “almost nonexistent,” according to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP).

It took Mortaja eight months to find tomatoes in the market. Here, he cooks a bare-bones shakshuka over an open stove, using scraps of paper, salvaged wood and a disposable coffee cup for fuel. He makes the dish with beans instead of eggs, its usual main ingredient.

Mortaja usually eats one meal a day – sometimes only every other day, he says.

The UN has said that people in Gaza are “effectively starving.” Before the war, the territory was “largely self-sufficient” in fresh produce, it added. But Israel’s military operation has damaged or destroyed up to 96% of agricultural assets, including farms and orchards, according to the World Bank. The IDF told CNN that it “does not intentionally harm agricultural land and seeks to mitigate environmental impact absent operational necessity.”

At a former school turned shelter overlooking an aid distribution point, 44-year-old businessman Rami Naser watches clusters of people lining up for a bowl of lentil soup.

Naser often watches similar scenes unfold from the window of the second-floor classroom where he lives. Naser can’t walk: Severe injuries sustained from Israeli bombardment of his home and shops have left him confined to this room.

Many aid entry points into Gaza remain closed by Israeli authorities, or open with extremely limited access.

“Lunch sometimes comes every day, sometimes every two days, sometimes every three days,” Naser says.

In northern Gaza, where Naser is displaced, 82% of households rely on humanitarian aid as their main food source, according to the WFP.

But not enough is getting in to keep many from going hungry. According to the WFP, there is enough food waiting to get into Gaza to feed the entire population for over a month.

Amnesty International said in December that Israel has placed “suffocating restrictions on life-saving humanitarian aid,” as part of a report that said Israel’s conduct during the war in Gaza amounts to genocide against the Palestinian people. COGAT said in November that “Israel is tirelessly working to provide for humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.” The Israeli government has vehemently denied the charge.

Gaza aid deliveries are at dangerously low levels

Of the 569 planned aid deliveries in December, two-thirds were denied, interfered with or canceled, the UN said.

Note: Data includes trucks carrying both humanitarian aid and commercial goods for sale. "Food items" includes trucks with only food. "Other" includes trucks with medical supplies, non-food items or a mixture of items that may include food.

Sources: UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (monthly totals after Oct. 8, 2023); United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (monthly average before Oct. 7, 2023)

It’s the afternoon and Hamouda and her seven younger siblings would typically be studying.

But with 95% of all school buildings and university campuses destroyed or damaged, all education has ground to a halt.

Instead of attending the Islamic University of Gaza, which was bombed one month into the war, Hamouda works a few shifts a month for Gaza-based charity Salam and Solidarity Foundation, making and distributing meals to other displaced people.

Her siblings, all school-aged, make up some of the half million others who have not been able to access a formal education for over a year.

Gaza’s education system is in ruins

Over 70% of all of the enclave's school buildings have been directly hit by Israeli airstrikes, according to the UNICEF-led Education Cluster. The IDF has said strikes on schools target Hamas militants and has insisted it takes steps to minimize harm to civilians. Hamas has denied embedding fighters in civilian infrastructure.

Note: There are an additional 16 school buildings where the damage is unknown.

Source: Education Cluster

Another chunk of Hamouda’s day is spent collecting water with her siblings, walking for over a half mile – along streets lined with piles of trash, raw sewage and rubble that will take years to clear – to the nearest well. The journey, which they make up to four times a week, is “long and tiring,” she says.

“I actually drink a small amount of water to save it for my brothers. I don't drink enough, as I remember how far I have to walk,” Hamouda says.

Access to water in Gaza is well below basic needs

The minimum amount of water that a person requires is 50-100 liters a day, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Most people in Gaza do not have enough safe water to meet their basic needs.

Sources: The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and the Palestinian Water Authority (Gaza water consumption pre-Oct. 7, 2023), United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Gaza water consumption estimate June-July, 2024), World Health Organization

Most Gazans have less than a jerry can of water available to them daily

Source: Sphere Handbook Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response

Meanwhile, from his window, Naser watches people lining up to fill their plastic containers with water from an aid truck but many leave empty-handed.

Human Rights Watch has said that Israel has deliberately and systematically dest r oyed water infrastructure, including cutting off water and electricity supplies and destroying warehouses that store spare parts.

The IDF told CNN that it “strikes exclusively on the grounds of military necessity and in strict accordance with international law,” and said that Hamas was operating near the water facilities in question.

The sun begins to set and Mortaja is riding his bike down the street before preparing for a long night in the dark.

Before this war began, Gaza’s electricity grid was functioning at less than half its capacity, with solar panels and batteries covering the deficit.

Gazans were used to experiencing an average of 14 hours of blackouts daily. But shortly after the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, Israel cut off Gaza’s power feeder lines and blocked fuel imports, drastically reducing its electricity supply. The only power station stopped operating and generators ran dry.

“Electricity doesn't come to us at all,” says Mortaja.

Now Mortaja and the rest of Gaza rely primarily on the remaining intact solar panels and batteries for electricity.

Night

As dusk falls, the sounds of the evening adhan, or call to prayer, would usually fill the air.

But that soundscape is all but muted, as around 80% of Gaza’s mosques have been destroyed or damaged, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs.

For Muslims, says Shalabi of Medical Aid For Palestinians, “spirituality is a huge part of our mental coping mechanism — and our connection with God is very important.

“We still have that connection, of course, but spirituality has been stolen from us, like dignity has been stolen from us.”

With nightfall, Hamouda’s world shrinks.

After dark, she and her family stay inside their tent where, she says, the “terrifying sounds of explosions and bombings” and the “voices of mothers screaming” create a nightmarish soundtrack for sleep.

Listen to Mortaja’s grandmother pray for the end of war

How we told this story

CNN asked three Gazans to record their daily lives in November 2024 and from this built a picture of a typical day. All of the videos featured in this interactive are from November 2024, except for the video of Mortaja on the rooftop in Gaza City, which was filmed in September 2024 and Hamouda drinking tea, filmed in January 2025.

Prices for food items are sourced from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics’ “Average Consumer Prices for selected commodities by region” for September 2023 and November 2024.

CNN has used the November 15, 2024 exchange rate at 0.2666 for shekels to USD.