Gaza: Displaced Lives

19/05/2025

Palestine

Hanan cooks over an open flame, the only way to feed her family. A glimpse into daily life marked by exhaustion and perseverance. Palestine, 2025 © Motassem Abu Aser.

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.

Hanan

“The day my daughter was killed, my life stopped”. These are the words of Hanan, a Palestinian woman from Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, where homes have been turned into ruins by Israeli airstrikes and most people have lost everything. For the past 18 months, Hanan has been sharing a tent amid the rubble with her daughter, grand-daughters and great-grand-daughter.

Sahar

Most people in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, have lost everything. Israeli airstrikes have turned their homes into ruins. Sahar shares a tent with her family amid the rubble. “The source of strength that keeps me going is my children.”

Deema

"When I grow up, I want to be a doctor like my mum.” This is the wish of Deema, a girl from Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, who for 18 months has been living with her family in a tent pitched in the rubble of their former home.

Images : Motassem Abu Aser
Interview : Nour Alsaqqa
Editing: Manon Tarasconi
Sound design: Lucas Masson
Directed by Léo Torréton
Produced by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

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