At the entrance to the Nitzan caravan site, I stop by the shop of Esther Buskillah. I had first met her when she was living with her family in the small settlement of Nisanit in northern Gush Katif, the block of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip evacuated in 2005. Like all the other 8,000 residents of the settlement, Buskillah was evacuated by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and sent to live in Nitzan, a huge caravan site set up on the sand dunes of the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.

It's noon and the sweltering heat has driven away the inhabitants of the temporary settlement. In her little shop, Buskillah sells gifts and souvenirs to foreign and local tourists. There is not a soul out there in the scorching midday heat. Opposite the shop, there is a caravan turned into a museum commemorating the history of Gush Katif.

“It isn’t just the heat; it's also because everyone here is so depressed,” said Buskillah, half-joking, half-serious. “After all, what would you expect? We have lost the joy of life we used to have in Gush Katif. And what's left? Our kids have still not recovered from the trauma of displacement. And we have not yet found real jobs. Unfortunately, to this very day, we are aching over our community, which has been shattered since we left Gush Katif.”

Not far away, a woman named Rachel (she chose not to share her last name) is hanging her laundry out to dry, as she did eight years ago in her spacious home in Neve Dekalim. I had come to know her, too, then. Time has left its mark on her face, which is lined now, having aged prematurely. She has no doubt that her feelings of anguish and distress are the cause of her depression.