In Gaza, survival is a daily act of defiance. Finding moments of laughter and warmth in a tent battered by rain is nothing short of a miracle.
On December 26, Gaza’s health ministry confirmed the fourth case of an infant freezing to death in 72 hours. A day later, a 28-year-old doctor also died due to hypothermia. There was one common denominator in each death: they were living in tents.
As the world has focused on the Gaza genocide, a massive Israeli campaign of violence and displacement has taken place across the West Bank. Photojournalist David Lombeida tells the stories of families in the South Hebron Hills and Jordan Valley.
I have lived through my own Nakba and understand why thousands of Palestinians fled their homes in 1948. I made the most difficult decision of my life and left Gaza, not knowing that what I carried might be all I will ever possess of my homeland.
As winter approaches, displaced families across Gaza are faced with two choices: either sink in overflowing sewage in destroyed cities or get flooded by rising tides on Gaza’s beach encampments.
“It is true that there are many people who prefer to flee and search for a safe place outside the Gaza Strip, but this is not the case for the majority of people…It is not easy to start life again away from a homeland that you love.”
Israeli settlers and military systematically made life unbearable for the Bedouin community living in the West Bank’s Ein Samiya region. On May 22 they were forced to leave their lands and were displaced for the fourth time since 1969.