For Palestinians, a day at the beach is an all-too-brief escape from war

The air at the beach in Gaza City last Friday afternoon was filled with squeals of happiness from young children running in and out of the water, the atmosphere a far cry from the destruction and rubble of the city as hundreds seek a momentary reprieve from the war. 

The beach, about a 10-minute walk from town, is peppered with colourful umbrellas where adults hide from the strong afternoon sun and keep a watchful eye on young children playing in the nearby Mediterranean Sea. Many swim in their clothes rather than swimsuits — running to their parents in drenched T-shirts, wiping saltwater from their faces. 

For a little while, thoughts of the war and the stress of trying to survive it are replaced by splashing, sandcastles and a sense of kinship. But even this small moment of joy can be tainted with memories of lost loved ones and the looming fear that things could still go wrong at any moment.

"When I came here, I cried," Umm Fadi Awad told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife as she sat with several other mothers under an umbrella while their children played nearby. 

"In the last few years, I would come and the environment was so nice. Now it's missing many things, even our happiness is not how it was in the beginning." 

Awad says she and her family have been displaced four or five times over the course of the war, moving between Rafah and Khan Younis before finally heading home to Gaza City during the first phase of the ceasefire in January. 

That's when Dr. Hanan Balkhy, the Eastern Mediterranean regional director for the World Health Organization (WHO), told an emergencies press briefing that "the psychological trauma facing the people of Gaza is unspeakable." 

She went on to say that the collective trauma from the war is "profound and beyond measure." 

So, as Palestinians look for any reprieve they can find, many turn to a day at the beach. 

Awad, 40, sits with friends around a battered table holding kettles of hot water for tea and coffee as one child eats a bowl of rice. 

She says the beach is a place to rest and find peace in the chaos of their lives. 

"This is the only space to breathe we have."

Nearby, Heba Al-Masry admits she was scared to come to the beach at first, but she finally relented to the pleas of her children, and the second they arrived, she says they took off to play.  

"I wasn't able to hold onto my kids," she explained. "They wanted to relieve the stress and the pressure."