Tahrir Ayad, 36, is a housewife and lives with her husband and their six children in a 120 square meter apartment in the destroyed old quarters of Gaza City. They are four families in the same home - a total of 35 people.
- Winter, which I used to love, has become a source of anxiety. Wind and water penetrate through the tarpaulins and the damaged roof, she tells DN by phone.
The residents of Gaza are under severe economic pressure. The prices of food, diesel, transport, internet connection and electricity have increased significantly, shows a report from the World Bank. The consumer price index rose from 114.2 in 2023 to 470.6 in 2025, which means that the price level became roughly four times as high.
Income opportunities have practically collapsed - and unemployment is at 78 percent.
Tahrir Ayad's eldest daughter graduated with high marks, but has not been able to start studying computer technology at university because the family cannot afford it. The other four daughters do not go to school. Only the youngest, the son, aged 7, receives tuition.
The husband Zaher sells vegetables from a table on the street and earns around SEK 100 a day. Before the war, he had a monthly salary of the equivalent of SEK 5,000. There is no electricity in the house. The lamps on the mobile phones, which they charge in a nearby shop, are often used as a light source.
- Medicine has become a luxury we cannot afford, says Tahrir Ayad.
She describes breathing problems from the smoke when cooking over an open fire. Her 12-year-old daughter has lost all her hair and developed skin changes with no possibility of treatment.
The family previously owned large olive groves that provided income. During the war they were razed to the ground by Israel. Now they buy imported olives for SEK 66 a kilo.
- I dream of mental peace and of a home of my own, being able to keep clean, have water and a gas stove. I just want us to be able to live a normal life again, says the mother of six.
For four months now, there has been no comprehensive distribution of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. Palestinian authorities accuse Israel of only allowing in about a third of the amount of aid that was supposed to be brought in during the one-year ceasefire, according to the agreement.
Some Gazans rely on bartering to obtain necessities they cannot afford, as well as to obtain food from charity kitchens.
- Nothing is free except death here, says Reham al-Habil, 31 years old.
Her family is forced to give up a lot in order to secure the most essential.
The family shares a rented apartment in Gaza's al-Rimal neighborhood with two other families from her husband Mahmoud's family. Here, they lack a refrigerator, washing machine, television – and above all, privacy. They owned an apartment in the neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan, which was destroyed during the first year of the Gaza war.
The rent is the equivalent of SEK 3,000 a month. The family members have to go up and down to the apartment on the seventh floor several times a day. The children carry water containers of up to 20 liters from the street.
- It is a life I could never have imagined that I would accept when my fiance and I talked about the future, says Reham al-Habil bitterly.
- I was forced to sell my gold jewelry, worth about 2,000 dollars, to pay escape costs at the beginning of the war. It was very difficult but we needed to survive.
Reham al-Habil's teacher's salary has dropped from the equivalent of 6,000 kroner a month to around 3,300, and even that doesn't come every month. Her husband, who repairs mobile phones, has also had his income halved, to the same level, because there are not many jobs.
The family is strict with food. On Friday, the most important meal of the week is eaten: makloube or musakhan. They are traditional Palestinian dishes of rice and bread respectively, both prepared with chicken. Before the war, such a meal cost around SEK 330, and was enough for four people for two days. Now it costs around SEK 660.
The rest of the week the family lives on leftovers, simple vegetable dishes and lentils. At the end of the month, breakfast and lunch are combined. There will be olives, yogurt and bread, which costs over SEK 130 per meal.
- I miss being able to shop without counting every shekel. I long for excursions and barbecue evenings by the sea, says Reham al-Habil.
