a 26-year-old married father of a toddler and resident of Deir al-Balah Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip
When I was around a year and a half old, I fell off the roof of my house and injured my skull. I had head surgery, and since then, I haven’t been able to see with my left eye. My wife Maryam (21) and I got married two years ago, and a year-and-a-half ago, our son, ‘Udai, was born. My wife is nine months pregnant with our second child now, and she’s due any moment.
For the first four months after our wedding, we rented an apartment in Deir al-Balah R.C. We paid 350 NIS (~92 USD) a month. At the time, I had a temporary job selling cigarettes at a street stand, but after two or three months, I already started to be in debt to my landlord because the income from the stand wasn’t enough to cover rent. He evicted us, and we moved to a different apartment that we’ve lived in ever since. We pay 250 NIS (~USD 66) a month.
I’m currently unemployed. Because of my disability, I can’t find work that I am able to do in Gaza. The house we live in is not in good condition. The walls are very old, and the roof is made of tin, so in the summer, intense heat seeps in, and in the winter, water leaks in. There are two rooms, but one of them is inhabitable because it has no electricity. Regardless, we live without electricity for the most part because I simply can’t pay the bill. In the beginning, I used battery-powered LED lights that I would charge at my family’s house, but it broke down, so we can’t even do that anymore. We don’t have a fridge or a washing machine, so my wife does laundry by hand. A few months after our wedding, we had to sell all of our bedroom furniture, and since then, we’ve been sleeping on the floor. My wife also sold what little jewelry she had.
When the hunger gets intolerable, we ask our neighbors for food. If we eat breakfast, we don’t eat for the rest of the day. ‘Udai stays hungry because our kitchen is just empty. There’s no food. I dream of a day when I can provide normal meals to my family, that we can eat at least two meals a day. We also don’t have money for diapers, so I have to ask my friends for them.
We never got aid from UNWRA, from the Qataris, or from welfare. Until two months ago, we paid our rent using donations we got from various people, but we haven’t had any help for the last two months. I dream that we’ll get help from UNWRA or welfare, or that we could find another organization to help us pay rent. Because we have no income, we only go further into debt. I’m afraid our current landlord will also evict us.
* Testimony given to B'Tselem Field Researcher Khaled al-‘Azayzeh on 2 August 2023