In one year of war between Israel and Hamas, the people of Gaza have lost nearly everything: their loved ones, their homes, their careers and their dreams. AFP spoke to a student, a paramedic and a former civil servant in Gaza, to hear how the conflict has impacted their lives. In total, more than 41,000 people have been killed in the besieged Palestinian territory in Israel's retaliatory campaign after the 7 October attack, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people on the Israel side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
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00:00I'm usually an optimistic person, but the war didn't make me optimistic.
00:09But I'm still optimistic, but not the kind of optimism I used to have.
00:13Because you feel like all roads are closed.
00:17There's no way out of the torture you're going through, or the suffering you're going through.
00:30The feeling of suffering, exclusion, displacement, all of it, there's no end to it.
00:37Literally, there's no end to it.
00:39So I really hope that these things will end as soon as possible.
00:43Because our future has been destroyed, our lives have been destroyed, our dreams have been destroyed.
01:00The idea that education is still difficult.
01:26I imagine that there will be more basic needs, other than education, before education.
01:33Because you have hospitals, everything is gone.
01:36So you're building a new life, you're building a new city.
01:41So it's difficult to put education first.
01:43So you still need, if you're done with the war, about two to three years,
01:49before you go back to the education you had before.
01:567 October 2012
02:17Before 7 October, I used to think that work was tiring and exhausting.
02:24But compared to after 7 October, no, this is the peak of suffering.
02:28The peak, the peak.
02:29Everything, even in your work system, is suffering.
02:32The cases have increased.
02:33The injuries you see, the difficult scenes, such as burns, injuries, martyrs,
02:38all of this gives you negative energy.
02:547 October 2012
02:56We all live in tents.
02:57In the heat, in the mud, in the mud, there's no place.
03:01As you can see, the tents are next to each other.
03:04In the winter, you get rained on, you're covered in sand.
03:11The peak of suffering.
03:19My life was peaceful.
03:22But after 7 October...
03:27I'm talking about Maha.
03:28My children lost their passion for life.
03:30The meaning of the word lost passion for life...
03:44Before 7 October, I mean 6 October, 7 October,
03:47between East and West, my life turned 180 degrees.
03:53Everything changed.
03:54The meaning of the word changed in everything, in everything.
03:57Before 7 October, my life was peaceful.
03:59The meaning of the word changed in everything, in everything.
04:27I have a beautiful family.
04:31I have a family in my house.
04:33They're happy, they're at ease.
04:35Suddenly, on 7 October, all the scales changed for all the people.
04:41We're here.
04:55We were forced to emigrate inside the city of Gaza.
04:59Then we were forced to emigrate from Gaza to the south.
05:05Of course, we moved more than 7 times to Khan Younes.
05:10We emigrated inside Khan Younes, then to Rafah.
05:13We emigrated inside Rafah, from one place to another.
05:16Then to the center, to Zawayda.
05:32I became a beggar.
05:35I became a handicap for the people.
05:37That's how the war made us.
05:40I needed...
05:43I needed a lot.
05:46I needed to feed my children.
05:49I needed to buy warm clothes for them.
05:54I needed to ask people to give me a blanket to cover my children.
06:04From the cold.
06:07There's a ball, Ramzi. We usually play football.