Life amid the ruins of Gaza: A year in photos

A year into the Israel-Hamas war, foreign journalists have still not been allowed inside Gaza except on a limited number of supervised tours organized by the Israel Defence Forces. In the absence of that coverage, citizens and journalists inside Gaza have picked up their phones and cameras to document the devastation that the war has wrought and their resilience in the face of it.

Himself displaced — together with his pregnant wife and young son — freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife, 33, has been heading out into the ruins of what used to be vibrant communities every day of the past year to document the lives upended by the war.

He has ventured into hospitals overwhelmed with dead and injured and struggling to manage wartime challenges such as malnutrition, amputations and polio; schools and other spaces turned into crowded shelters and tent camps for the displaced; and the vast areas where streets, stores and homes once stood, now reduced to rubble. 

These are some of the stories he's covered for CBC News. 

In November 2023, about a month after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel that instigated the war, the Canadian government managed to get hundreds of Palestinian Canadians out of Gaza to safety in Cairo via the Rafah border crossing. Those lucky enough to have a passport went on to Canada to reunite with their families. But many had to leave relatives and loved ones behind. Bureaucratic delays and fighting over control of the border crossing led to long lineups and chaos at the border, with some who had travelled long distances turned back when the border suddenly shut again. Administrative hurdles would continue to frustrate Canadians trying to bring loved ones to Canada.

(Mohamed El Saife/CBC)

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip have been central to the story of the war. Not only have they been put under tremendous stress as they receive mounting numbers of dead and wounded, but they are also a flashpoint in the battle between the IDF and Hamas. Even though hospitals should be protected areas under international humanitarian law, Israel claims some are used by Hamas to hide weapons and militants and has raided several of them in the past year. Surgeons like these at Al Najjar Hospital, meanwhile, have had to operate without essential supplies, meaning women are giving birth without painkillers, children are undergoing amputations without sufficient anesthetic and there are not enough antibiotics to treat the infections cropping up because of the unsanitary conditions people are living in.

(Mohamed El Saife/CBC)

As the Israel-Hamas war continued through the winter, Muslims in Gaza marked Ramadan, the month of fasting, as well as they could. Abu Mustafa Naji and his wife would break their fast in the evening on a small table amid the rubble of their home. The meals were meagre, but the couple did their best to honour the tradition of the iftar meal. As darkness set in, they cleared the makeshift table and made their way to a tent they were sheltering in. 

(Mohamed El Saife/CBC)

The breadth of heartbreaking stories of personal loss in Gaza over the past year has been overwhelming. The toll has been especially devastating for young children. Earlier this year, UNICEF estimated that 17,000 children have been orphaned or separated from their families. Throughout the year, El Saife has met many children who've remained resilient in the face of incredible trauma and loss. In April, he covered the story of Sabreen Roh, which captivated many around the world. The baby was born 10 weeks premature after her mother died in an airstrike. Doctors performed an emergency C-section to save Sabreen, but the baby did not survive, El Saife later learned.  

(Mohamed El Saife/CBC)

The incursion into Rafah near the Gaza-Egypt border was a pivotal moment in the war. In May, the Israel Defence Forces moved into the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of civilians were sheltering after being displaced from other parts of Gaza. This meant they had to pack their belongings again, many for the third or fourth time, and find a new safe place to go. Increasingly, Gazans feel there is nowhere that is safe from the war. 

(Mohamed El Saife/CBC)