The Gaza Strip is devastated by a prolonged conflict, marked by relentless Israeli bombings and a severe blockade on humanitarian aid. Since October 2023, more than 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced throughout Gaza, representing nearly 90% of the population. Families are living in makeshift camps and overcrowded shelters, with limited access to water, food, and medical care.
A ceasefire was announced and came into effect on January 19, 2025, and many Gazans have started returning to the northern part of the Gaza Strip they were forcibly displaced from. However, this return faces numerous challenges. Gaza has been ravaged by bombardments and drone strikes, leaving everything in ruins. Thus, despite the ceasefire and the gradual return of people, the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains critical.
Gaza: Displaced Lives
From October 2023 to January 2025, over 1.9 million Palestinians were displaced within Gaza. After the ceasefire in January 2025, more than half a million people returned to their homes in the north of the enclave. In the city of Beit Lahia, Hanan, Anwar, Nour, Sahar and Deema live together in the rubble of their former home.
Filmed in March 2025, at the start of the Israeli army's total siege of Gaza, the documentary ‘Displaced Lives’ throws light on the daily lives of four generations of women who for 18 months have been doing their best to survive in the epicentre of the war.
We are alive, but we're not really living. Or maybe it's truer to say that we are dead, but the heartbeat remains.
Displaced Lives brings together the testimonies of five women from the same family living in the epicentre of the war: Hanan, Sahar, Anwar, Nour, and Deema.
Credits
Images: Motassem Abu Aser
Interview: Nour Alsaqqa
Editing: Manon Tarasconi
Sound design: Lucas Masson
Directed by Léo Torréton
Produced by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
