Exhausted Palestinians struggle to put lives back together as world’s gaze fixes on Iran

Five months after a ceasefire was announced, airstrikes are still killing civilians and the humanitarian situation remains dire. 

Children play in the rubble of a destroyed building in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga)

There is little left that connects Palestinians in Gaza with their prewar existence. 

The contours of life have become darker and far more brutal, as if the population has been stripped of its past.