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Gazans speak of severe hardship after war

Two Gazans, a housewife and university student, tell of their daily struggles to pick up the pieces after the last war shattered their lives.
Palestinians take cover from rain inside a makeshift shelter near the ruins of their houses, that witnesses said were destroyed during a seven-week Israeli offensive, in the east of Gaza City October 19, 2014.  An open-ended ceasefire between Israel and Hamas-led Gaza militants, mediated by Egypt, took effect on August 26 after a seven-week conflict. It called for an indefinite halt to hostilities, the immediate opening of Gaza's blockaded crossings with Israel and Egypt, and a widening of the territory's f

A narrow hallway leading to the entrance of Umm Mohammed’s crumbling home in the Shaaf neighborhood east of Gaza City has become her only abode. Israeli warplanes destroyed her two-story house during Operation Protective Edge, rendering it uninhabitable. The family no longer has shelter.

Mohammed spends most of her time in the hallway, where she washes the family's clothes, cleans the dishes and receives visitors. However, she can't sleep there because it is directly adjacent to a busy street, and so she sleeps in the library of the mosque opposite her house, which was also bombed.

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