The Gaza Strip has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world – more than 50% – and an exceptionally young population. As more young people fall in love under the blockade, couples are turning to loan agencies to get married, and falling into crippling debt in the process.

The spread on the Atta family’s dinner table can be commonly found on dinner tables throughout the Gaza Strip, where many families live below the poverty line. The family of five’s budget never exceeds 15 shekels ($4.87) for dinner.

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Global consumer inflation has caused food prices in Gaza to hike, making staple products in grocery stores unaffordable and worrying shop owners about the cost of restocking.

The olive harvest in Gaza was down by 65% this year, leaving many farmers without enough crop to sell. Experts say this dip was due to rising temperatures from climate change.

After Gaza’s Chamber of Commerce announced it would begin accepting applicants for work permits to Israel, tens of thousands rushed to apply. One photo of the scene tells the story of the devastation the Palestinian economy is currently facing.

Ibrahim Atta looks out at a dusty field of grasses on a hot Gaza afternoon in early fall and declares this land was once a fertile “piece of heaven.” Twenty years ago, he was earning an income from selling produce grown on this nine-acre family plot, but today Atta is no longer able to safely access the farm. The last time he tried to reach the land was in 2015. Israeli forces positioned on the other side of the fence “fired two tear gas bombs just under my feet,” Atta said. “I left and have not gone again. I just look at it from a distance and can’t get close, they may kill me.”

In late August students in Gaza headed back to schools where many are learning in overcapacity classrooms with up to three sharing a desk, as educators grapple to find places for pupils whose schools were bombed during a recent escalation with Israel. 

When it rains, it pours—inside Zoher Alsayd’s living room, kitchen and bedroom to be exact. Like many Palestinians, the former house painter’s home was wrecked by airstrikes during the latest escalation between Israel and Hamas earlier this year in May. And this was not the first time his roof was destroyed. Alsayd belongs to a growing group of Palestinians whose homes were damaged to the point of becoming uninhabitable, not once, but multiple times over the course of these four conflicts with Israel over the last 13 years.

Palestinians plan to continue protests at the fence separating Gaza and Israel this week, following clashes over the weekend where 24 protesters were wounded. “We can’t stand doing nothing while our people are suffering death due to Israeli siege,” Talal Abu Zarifa explained.