A 40-year-old father of seven from Bani Suheila, Bilal described his family's displacement and harsh life in a tent in winter
Before the war, I worked as a graphic designer, but since it started I’ve been unemployed. Until December 2023, we lived with our seven children—Nibal, 18, Wisal, 17, Nihal, 15, Nahil, 12, Rital, 9, and the twins Anas and ‘Abud, 4—in an apartment in a four-story building, where my brothers and their families also lived, in the town of Bani Suheila east of Khan Yunis.
In December 2023, we had to abandon the building and relocate to Rafah after Israeli fighter jets bombed the entire area, surrounding it with a fire belt. When we got to Rafah, I bought a tent for 1,500 shekels and set it up in the Tel a-Sultan area. Until May 2024, we lived in it along with my brothers' families. When the military raided Rafah, we had to relocate again. We tried to go back to Bani Suheila, but when we got there, we found our home completely destroyed. My brothers and I rented a plot of land next to the house, set up tents and lived there.
Since we returned to Bani Suheila, we’ve been displaced about five times – each time for a week or two, staying with relatives in al-Mawasi. Every time we relocated, I left the tent behind and took only our clothes and mattresses.
The first time we got back from al-Mawasi, we discovered shrapnel had damaged the tent and it was no longer usable. I had to buy a new tarp for about 400 shekels. Because of the crowding in the tent, we decided to separate. My wife and Nihal sleep in a separate tent, and Wisal went to stay with her maternal grandmother, in her house in Bani Suheila.
A few days ago, it rained heavily, a real downpour with strong winds. Because our tent is in a low area, a lot of rainwater got in during the night. The children and I dug trenches to divert the water, but it didn’t help. We huddled together all night in the corner of the tent, but all our clothes, mattresses and blankets got soaked. We had two very rough nights. Only when the rain stopped could we take the mattresses and clothes out to dry.
I asked the municipality to fix the infrastructure in the area, but because of the fuel shortage, they couldn’t help us. We put stone walls up around the tent to keep the next rainfall out. I also get sand in buckets and pile it up around the tent to prevent leaks, but the water still gets in, even through holes in the ceiling. I sealed the holes with tape, but it didn’t stop the leaks. I put pots on the floor so that dripping water doesn't flood everything.
We’re freezing cold in the tent and we have no way to heat it, because there’s no electricity and we can’t afford to buy firewood—it's too expensive. We don’t have enough blankets and winter clothes, either. At night, packs of stray dogs wander between the tents, and my children are very scared. Life in the tent was bad enough in the summer. My wife had headaches the whole summer because of the heat, and we suffered from insects and rodents.
Since I’m unemployed, we’re very badly off and I’m in a lot of debt. All prices have gone up and we have no income. We can’t buy food, so the children go to the soup kitchen every day to get food. Most of the time we eat rice, beans, noodles and lentils cooked at the soup kitchen.
Our tent is already in bad shape again. To fix it, I need at least three new tarps, and each one costs 400 shekels. For us, that’s a lot of money. Also, to secure the tent I have to buy bricks and cement, which cost about 4,000 shekels, and are also very hard to get here now.
* Testimony given to B'Tselem field researcher Khaled al-‘Azayzeh on 12 January 2025