Faces of Gaza

One month ago, life in Gaza changed for ever.   

In the early hours of Saturday, October 7, the first sirens rang out across southern Israel, warning that militants had broken through the border from Gaza. In a day of carnage, militant group Hamas led an attack that killed about 1,400 people. About 240 others were seized as hostages and taken back to the Gaza Strip.   

Disaster followed for the people of Gaza.  

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel imposed a “total siege” on the strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians who were already living in overcrowded conditions, cut off from the rest of the world.   

The Israeli military began to pummel Gaza with air strikes and shelling soon after and has been bombing it ever since. In the first six days of the conflict, Israel dropped more than 6,000 bombs on the densely populated strip – about the same number the US dropped on Afghanistan in an entire year.   

Gazans were forced to take shelter wherever they could. Hospitals and schools quickly became overcrowded.

"Leaving the hospital can cost you your life," as it is the safest place in Gaza, Dr Murad Abed from Al Aqsa Hospital told The National. 

Even there, they aren’t safe – hospitals have been hit by strikes, including Al Ahli Arab Hospital, where hundreds of people were killed on October 17. Israel denied striking the hospital and blamed Palestinian militants, who rejected the claims.  

At least a million Palestinians have been displaced by the violence, their homes damaged or destroyed as entire neighbourhoods were reduced to rubble. Many fled northern Gaza after the Israeli military told civilians to move south in preparation for a ground invasion – an order that was condemned as “impossible” and “dangerous” by the UN. Those who left their homes in the north found no respite, as bombs continued to fall on the south.   

A ground incursion began at the end of the month, with tanks and troops crossing into Gaza as Israel launched the “second phase” of the war.

Israeli soldiers are now fighting in the streets of Gaza city, with the death toll rising every day. Israel has said it is prepared to wage a “long and difficult” war. The US has backed its ally and declined to support calls for an immediate ceasefire. The crisis has captured the world's attention, with global leaders including US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron travelling to Israel for talks. 

Behind the politics and diplomacy, it is the people of Gaza who have suffered. Countless lives have been cut short. Parents have been forced to bury their children. Children have been orphaned before they had a chance in life. Entire families have been wiped out in a moment.   

"I am on the edge of a breakdown," said Dr Abed, telling the story of three babies who needed surgery but could not be catered for.

"We just gave them oxygen and gave them sedatives until they died."

And yet, against this disastrous backdrop, Gazans have found ways to survive, from using seawater to wash their clothes to documenting their lives for the world in video diaries.   

Their suffering and survival is captured in this series of photographs and audio clips taken since October 7. These faces tell the real story of the war in Gaza.