Gaza’s tent life between illness and daily despair

Gaza faces public health crisis amid Israel’s war, with waste, sewage and poor sanitation leading to disease outbreaks.

Gaza City – The Abu Amr family have been displaced more than 17 times since Israel’s war on Gaza began. Each move has narrowed their options. Now, they are living in a tent pitched beside a sprawling rubbish dump in the Remal area of central Gaza City – one of the few remaining places where they could find space.

For the family, survival has become a daily struggle against pollution, illness and indignity.

“We always say that we live in two wars in Gaza, one that kills with bombing, and one that is from rubbish,” said Saada Abu Amr, 64, who was displaced from Beit Lahiya and is now living in Gaza City. “I have an asthma attack, and the inhaler is always with me. I put it under the pillow at night. I use it several times at night as the smell of the waste blocks my breathing airway.”

Her daughter-in-law, Suryya Abu Amr, a 35-year-old mother of five, said basic hygiene has become nearly impossible.

“We use cleaning materials, but we can’t keep spending all we have on cleaning; things never become clean in a tent near a waste area, especially with the lack of water,” she told Al Jazeera. “We get infected with gastroenteritis several times a month.”