"In October, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire, after two years of war. In the weeks since, sporadic Israeli strikes have killed at least a hundred people in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, but the ceasefire, however fragile, is holding, and so is a semblance of hope. Palestinians are now returning to destroyed city blocks, where services are scarce, and access to water, food, and electricity is limited."
"The few remaining schools are still doubling as shelters, and local charity groups are trying to circulate aid and other basic resources. The United Nations estimates that at least 1.9 million people were displaced during the war. One of them is Shahd Shamali, who is twenty years old, and is currently living at a camp in Deir al-Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip."
"Shamali was raised in Rimal, a neighborhood in western Gaza City, near the Mediterranean Sea. It was once a business and commercial hub, with ministries, banks, schools, and galleries within a few blocks of one another. Palm-lined boulevards cut between modern glass apartment buildings, and upscale restaurants overlooked the water. The neighborhood has since been reduced to a sprawl of tents and wreckage, storefronts hanging from cages of bent metal."
An October ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has largely held despite sporadic Israeli strikes that killed at least a hundred people in Gaza. Palestinians are returning to destroyed city blocks where water, food, electricity, and services remain limited. Remaining schools still double as shelters while local charities circulate aid and basic resources. The United Nations estimates at least 1.9 million people were displaced during the war. Twenty-year-old Shahd Shamali lives in a Deir al-Balah camp and communicates by WhatsApp from a shared room to access the router. She and her family evacuated their fourteen‑story Al-Jundi al-Majhoul Tower on September 14, 2025.
Read at The New Yorker
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