The arrival of a new year is typically a symbol of hope, renewal, and fresh beginnings. Yet for the people of Gaza, 2026 has begun amid the harsh realities of survival. Thousands of displaced families are confronting hunger, cold, and the uncertainty of violence from the very first days of the year.

Sana Isa, a 40-year-old mother of seven, sits with her children beneath a fragile shelter in Deir al-Balah, constructed from a tattered tarpaulin and plastic sheets after being forced from the Al-Bureij camp. Wet blankets, muddy floors, and an uncertain future define her daily existence.

The grand peace agreements reported in the media have brought her no respite. “I no longer know who to blame—war, the cold, or hunger,” she says, her voice heavy with quiet resignation. For her family, dreams of the future have been reduced to the immediate necessities: securing food, safe drinking water, and keeping children alive amid bombings and instability.

Sana’s husband was killed in an Israeli airstrike in November 2024. Since then, she has shouldered the full responsibility of raising her children alone. After being evicted from Al-Bureij in central Gaza, she found refuge in Deir al-Balah. Every day is a painful balancing act between finding food, tending the injured, and protecting children from the cold.

For 2025, she recalls, even a single kilogram of flour was considered a victory against hunger. “When I went to sleep, my only prayer was that tomorrow there might be some bread,” she remembers. Watching her children weaken from malnutrition drained her own strength.

Driven by desperate hunger, Sana has turned to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US-supported aid centre, for assistance, though every journey is fraught with danger. According to UN data, over 2,000 Palestinians had already died seeking aid before November 2024. Sana herself was injured at the Netzarim centre, and her 17-year-old daughter, Rafah, sustained a gunshot wound to the chest at the Morag centre. Yet hunger repeatedly pushes her along perilous paths.

Violence has intensified since October 2023, making each successive year harsher than the last. “Two years should have been enough,” Sana says. “But each year has been more painful than the one before.” Today, the aspirations of Gaza’s people are modest: a tent capable of withstanding winter, a gas cylinder instead of wood for cooking, and safe, nutritious food for their children.

Humanitarian Snapshot of Gaza

For Gazans entering 2026, there is no hope of prosperity or large-scale reform. Their sole wish is to meet the minimum requirements for survival. In this conflict-scarred territory, each day has become a test of endurance, where simply staying alive remains the primary objective.