People, not numbers: Stories of displacement in Gaza

Since the escalation of hostilities and airstrikes in Gaza, the world has witnessed mass destruction of homes, infrastructure, schools, hospitals and entire neighborhoods being levelled. Families have been displaced repeatedly — some more than ten times — seeking safety that does not exist. 

The ceasefire, signed 100 days ago, has not stopped the airstrikes nor the suffering: shelter is fragile, food and clean water are limited, medical supplies are scarce, electricity is absent, and winter conditions bring additional risk to all and especially children, older people, and people with disabilities.

More than two years into this humanitarian catastrophe, families continue to live in makeshift tents, damaged buildings or overcrowded informal sites with minimal protection from rain, heat, flooding or disease. Mothers raise children in unstable shelters and indecent living conditions. Students have lost education. Breadwinners have lost livelihoods. Survivors carry trauma in silence. 

DRC’s role is to respond — urgently and continuously — through protection, shelter, legal aid, cash assistance, winterization, psychosocial support, and emergency relief delivered with local partners and field teams. Today we carry both the operational responsibility and the moral responsibility to ensure that people in Gaza are seen, heard, supported and remembered. 

Below are first-hand testimonies from people living the reality of displacement. They reflect loss, resilience, and the ongoing need for humanitarian access at scale. These are not statistics. They are people.