By The New York Times (World News) | Created at 2024-10-07 10:25:10 | Updated at 2024-10-07 12:30:33
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The war has killed tens of thousands and devastated entire cities, leaving many in Gaza without a home and fueling a humanitarian catastrophe.
- Oct. 7, 2024, 6:14 a.m. ET
Last October, Fadi Abu Kheir of southern Gaza had big plans. He was going to be engaged to the woman he loved. After they got married, he said, they would move in together, into an apartment that he spent years building.
“Now,” Mr. Abu Kheir, 24, said, “I am clueless about my future. I cannot even think how I can adapt to life postwar.”
It has been a year since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks impelled Israel to launch a retaliatory offensive in Gaza. For Mr. Abu Kheir — and, indeed, for Palestinians across the enclave — every day since, he said, has teemed with “sadness, depression and fury.”
The war has killed over 41,000 people, according to Gazan health officials, and devastated entire neighborhoods and cities, leaving hundreds of thousands without a home and fueling a humanitarian catastrophe.
More than 2 million people lived in the strip before the conflict. No one has been unaffected.
“We were so happy before this war,” said Maisaa al-Naffar, 20, of Khan Younis, breaking into tears as she recalled her first few weeks as a newlywed before the war began. She added: “I am not the person I used to be.”
Nine months pregnant, she is sheltering in a tent in southern Gaza.
“I miss my old life. I miss the days when we used to have fun or laugh at even the smallest things. I miss my life when we had enough healthy food and snacks,” Ms. al-Naffar said. “Today, everything has become a hell, full of dust and darkness.”
