Tag Archives: homes

Dreams amid the rubble: Gaza’s women speak of homes, loss and hungry children

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In Gaza City, families living in tents reveal a shared, grim reality.

Many have been forced to flee the fighting dozens of times. Most find themselves homeless and hungry while facing an uncertain future.

Khadija Manoun and her daughter in the space she uses as a kitchen inside a destroyed building.

Khadija Manoun: Kitchen of life’s leftovers

Khadija Manoun said she and her family have moved more than 20 times, from Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip to a destroyed building in western Gaza, in search of shelter. She had owned a new fully furnished house, which she had built with a bank loan.

“I furnished my house well, with tiles and electrical appliances,” she said. “It had only been three years since I had the house. Then the war came and everything was lost.”

Today, everything has changed, Ms. Manoun said. Her spacious, fully equipped kitchen is now just a corner in the rubble, where a solitary soap dish borrowed from a neighbour sits. Metal utensils have been replaced with plastic tea containers to serve 10 people.

The bathroom was reduced to a corner covered with pieces of cloth that had been blankets. Her dressing room is now home to tattered suitcases.

“This is now my closet where I put everything,” she said. “I had a bedroom that had cost me 10,000 shekels.”

Her family sleeps on simple mattresses. Clean drinking water is a luxury that Khadija chases after, running between trucks, often returning with empty containers.

Amid all this, she sometimes reminisces, scrolling through photos on her mobile phone of her old home and the meals they used to eat.

Badriya Barrawi, a displaced person in Gaza, is living among the ruins of destroyed buildings.

Badriya Barawi: Exhausted by hunger

In her modest tent on the beach west of Gaza City, Badriya Barawi, from Beit Lahia, sits, arranging what remains of her life. Tears stream from her eyes.

“Have mercy on us,” she said. “We are fed up and exhausted, mentally and physically. We can’t bear it any longer. How long will this life go on?”

She says her children are crying from the heat and hunger.

“We haven’t had bread for three days. This morning, I fed the children hummus, but is that enough for their stomachs?” said Ms. Barawi, who suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes.

She said she collapses daily from a lack of food.

Hiyam Zayed is displaced from Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.

Hiyam Zayed: Trampled garden of dreams

In a nearby tent, Hiyam Zayed and her eight daughters eat lentil soup without bread. Describing her former home, she said there were six rooms and a garden.

“I was happy in my home,” she said. “My daughters and I used to have fun there. They played on the roof or inside the rooms. We had a beautiful garden in front of the house, and we grew plants and ate its produce and raised chickens. My daughters were very happy. We fed them the best food and dressed them in the best clothes.”

She also said she used to have a washing machine, a fully equipped kitchen and a refrigerator “full of goodies”.

Now, everything is gone.

“No food, no washing machine, no feelings: we’ve become depressed,” she added.

“My daughters wear the worst clothes. I can’t find a way to bathe them. I used to turn on the water tap at home and water would run for drinking or bathing. Now, we live in a tent in the sand. I light a fire to cook after I used to have gas. I borrow cooking utensils.”

“How are we to blame for what happened, and who bears responsibility?” Ms. Zayed asked. “What is my fault and my children’s fault when we are displaced from one place to another and they die of hunger?”

Hiyam’s daughters eating a lunch of lentil soup, without bread, where they live, inside a destroyed building.

Mass displacement

According to UN reports, more than two million Palestinians –the population of Gaza – live in about 15 per cent of the Strip’s area after the war caused widespread destruction of infrastructure and homes.

International organizations have warned that the continuation of the conflict threatens to have “catastrophic consequences” in the near term.

That includes a serious impact on children’s mental and physical health, the spread of disease and the disintegration of social structures.

This amid the absence of any clear path towards a political or humanitarian solution.

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Ukraine: UN refugee agency helps repair homes amid ongoing conflict

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In the fourth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, housing remains one of the country’s most urgent humanitarian and recovery challenges. The destruction has been widespread and ongoing.

According to the latest Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment, 13 per cent of Ukraine’s housing stock has been damaged since February 2022, impacting an estimated 2.5 million families.

More than buildings 

In coordination with Ukrainian authorities and partners, UNHCR has invested over $114 million in durable housing solutions since July 2022, supporting both durable home repairs and emergency shelter assistance.

“By helping repair houses and apartments, we are enabling people to stay in or return to their homes – places that hold profound meaning, often passed down through generations,” said Karolina Lindholm Billing, UNHCR’s representative in Ukraine.  

“These are not just buildings. These are treasured spaces where couples raised their children, families celebrated milestones, cared for older relatives and built their lives together,” she said.

UNHCR’s support includes a range of solutions: contracting local builders, providing construction materials or offering cash assistance to homeowners. 

Repairs may include roofs, windows, insulation and in some cases, major reconstruction. The agency also helps restore common areas in apartment buildings.

Emergency shelter and long-term needs

UNHCR also provides emergency shelter kits – tarpaulin, wooden boards, nails and other materials – to help protect homes from further weather damage.  

Since 2022, more than 470,000 people have received such kits.

With millions still internally displaced – many from areas under temporary occupation and with little prospect of return – UNHCR supports broader shelter options, including restoring social housing, repairing rural homes and refurbishing collective centres for the most vulnerable. 

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Thousands flee homes in Mozambique as conflict and disasters fuel worsening crisis

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The latest displacement brings the total number of people uprooted by violence, cyclones and social unrest in Mozambique to nearly 1.3 million, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

The situation is particularly dire in Cabo Delgado province, where attacks by non-state armed groups continue to drive displacement, destroy infrastructure and disrupt recovery efforts.

“Thousands have lost their homes, many for the second or third time and are seeking safety in already overstretched communities,” Xavier Creach, UNHCR Representative in Mozambique told journalists at a regular news briefing in Geneva on Friday.

A ‘triple crisis’

Mr. Creach warned that the southeast African country is grappling with a “triple crisis” – armed conflict and displacement, recurring extreme weather events, and months of post-electoral unrest.

At the same time, extreme weather events – most recently Cyclone Jude in March – have devastated communities already hosting large numbers of displaced families. Food prices have surged by up to 20 per cent in some areas, compounding the strain on households and deepening the economic fragility in one of the world’s poorest countries.

The risks facing displaced people, particularly women and children, are severe. Protection concerns, including gender-based violence, family separation and limited access to documentation, are rising sharply.

According to UNHCR estimates, nearly 5.2 million people across the country require some form of humanitarian assistance.

Dwindling funds

In the challenging environment, UNHCR’s response is constrained by lack of funding with less than one-third of the $42.7 million funding appeal for the year met so far.

The agency warned that unless urgent support is mobilized, vital programmes will be at risk.

The broader UN humanitarian appeal, addressing other critical sectors such as nutrition and food security, health, water and sanitation, and education also faces severe shortages, having received only about 15 per cent of the required $352 million.

“A perfect storm is gathering. If we turn away now, the country will face a much larger humanitarian emergency,” Mr. Creach said.

“The crisis is unfolding now. We have a choice. We can act to prevent, support and protect – or we can sit on our hands.”

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Absent faces, destroyed homes – young students paint the pain of Gaza

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Their paintings and drawings range from a portrait of an esteemed Palestinian poet and family members killed in conflict, to a sky blackened by thick smoke – and a child crying in front of his mother’s corpse.

The poignant images are currently on display at UNRWA’s Remal School in Gaza City, which has been transformed into a shelter.

Remembrance and loss

The exhibition provides an opportunity for the children and young people to express and discuss their feelings after nearly 18 months of war.

Fatima al-Za’anin, who was displaced from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, cried as she spoke about her artwork. “I painted the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, I drew mama, baba, my sister and my grandfather,” she said.

Fatima stopped talking to cry once more and turned to a small pencil drawing peppered with red spots. “I drew martyrs’ bodies that were torn to pieces,” she explained.

She pointed to another drawing of a boy called Mohammed “who wished he had one person left in his family, but there was no one left,” she said. “I painted a child who lamented his mother, whom he had lost.”

A specialist from the UNRWA Psychological Support Centre stood beside Fatima and praised her courage in expressing her feelings.

17 year-old Na’emat Haboob, the sole survivor of her family and displaced from Jabalia Camp, stands beside her artwork—a moving tribute to her mother, who was killed in the war.

Praying for comfort

Na’emat Haboob, a 17-year-old student, touched one of her paintings as she spoke about it. The image is of the face of her mother, who was killed in the war. 

“This is mama’s painting.  Thank God I could draw it while I’m trying to get over losing her.  I hope everyone will pray for her.” 

Na’emat continued to run her fingers over the painting as if she wanted to touch her mother’s face and said: “May God grant me comfort for losing her and my siblings.”

May God grant me comfort for losing her and my siblings

She credited the mental health team at the Remal shelter for their support, saying it gave her the strength to turn her pain into art. 

Her grief welled up again and she was unable to go on. Comforted by a hug from the counsellor, she was able to continue, saying the psychological support she receives at the shelter enables her to keep studying. 

“I seek to develop my talents after what I’ve been through during the war,” she said. “I want to try hard to be what my mother wished for me.”

Malak Fayad, a displaced from Beit Hanoun (Gaza) shares the meaning behind her artwork with fellow displaced visitors, using art as a way to express her experiences, resilience, and hope amid the devastation of war.

Lives transformed, hopes destroyed

Another student, Malak Fayyad, stood in front of her colourful paintings. One depicts the clear blue sky and sea of Gaza, showing birds, trees and landscapes. It is a copy of a work she had previously painted which hung proudly on a wall in her family’s home. 

But the house was destroyed along with all their belongings, including the painting.

“I painted it again to remember Gaza as it was, and next to it another painting clouded by black smoke from weapons,” Malak said, before highlighting other works she created, including one which “shows how our lives have been transformed after the destruction and bombing.”

Another of her paintings depicts a Palestinian man who appears to be carrying a bag in the form of a house. She said it “shows that the Palestinian always carries with him the Palestinian cause, even when he is displaced and forced to leave his home.”

The war in Gaza has destroyed hopes of a better future, according to another young artist, Malak Abu Odeh.  

“Not only displacement and destruction, but the war has taken away from us our dearest people, our relatives and loved ones,” she said.

“We’re not well, but I would like to thank the mental health team who are trying to entertain us, help us and support us.”

Commitment to deliver

UNRWA continues to provide psychosocial support services across the Gaza Strip. The agency said its teams responded to around 3,000 cases between 21 and 27 April. 

This support included individual counselling, awareness-raising sessions and response to gender-based violence cases in its health centres, medical points and shelters. 

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