How Gaza's refugee camps became targets in Israel's war with Hamas

For weeks across the Gaza Strip, tens of thousands of people inside the territory's crowded refugee camps have been bracing for the next explosion as Israel's military escalates its aerial attacks on the area — including targeted strikes on their neighbourhoods.

"No one sleeps under the bombing. My children keep jumping up and crying at every airstrike," Abu Abdallah, a Gaza City resident who is staying in Jabalia camp with relatives, told Reuters this week.

Israel has struck several of Gaza's refugee camps in recent days in its war against Hamas, with its defence forces this week saying Hamas militants are embedding themselves in residential areas to either hide behind or draw out strikes on the civilian population.

A representative of Israel's military has said its war is with Hamas, not Palestinian families, after militants killed more than 1,400 people and kidnapped roughly 240 others during a surprise attack on Oct. 7.

Health authorities in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, said strikes on its largest camp, Jabalia, have killed hundreds of people and wounded hundreds more this week,

Humanitarian leaders, including those at the United Nations, have condemned the attacks on the camps as potential war crimes, noting people inside have already been living for generations in deplorable conditions with no means to escape the conflict.

Under Israel's assertion that Hamas is using those populations as cover for its militant operations, international relations experts say the international community needs to question how fighters have been able to exploit some of the territory's most vulnerable civilians. 

"How did Hamas get away with it?" said Aurel Braun, a professor of international relations and political science at the University of Toronto.

"If you were a refugee in those camps, wouldn't you want to know?"

Refugee camps in Gaza were initially established to temporarily house hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who lost their homes and livelihoods during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Nearly 75 years later, they are home to many of the territory's 1.7 million refugees; they rely on humanitarian aid to survive.

Even before the latest conflict, the camps were some of the most densely populated areas in the world. There is little open space, with apartment buildings, shops and markets connected by narrow alleys.

Food is scarce, power cuts are routine and roughly 95 per cent of the camps' populations don't have consistent access to clean water, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Nearly half of the population is unemployed, without access to proper job opportunities. 

"Living conditions are pretty wretched," said Braun. "When there's a war, then these people are doubly punished."

UNRWA figures show the total number of registered Palestinian refugees grew from 750,000 in 1950 to around five million in 2013.