At the heart of the Gaza scene today, the features of daily life are changing dramatically. Instead of talking about job opportunities, investment, and growth, people are talking about water, bread, and sleeping safely.

It has moved from a production economy to what can be described as a ‘survival economy’. More than two million people are living in temporary tents, searching every morning for a way to survive another day that promises nothing.

This term accurately sums up the reality of Gaza today: an economy without factories, salaries, or banks, based on what humanitarian aid or bartering within the camps can provide. The only law of the market is the law of scarcity, and the only goal is to secure the bare minimum for survival.

Gaza: life between ashes and tents

In one of the displacement camps in the centre of Gaza City, Asaad Salama sits in front of his worn-out tent, contemplating the ruins of his home that was destroyed in the north. Before Israel’s genocide, he had a job that provided for his family, but today he lives on whatever bags of flour or bottles of water he can get his hands on. He said:

We used to live a simple but dignified life. Now we live day to day, waiting for a bag of flour or a litre of water. The tent does not protect us from the heat or the cold, and the children get sick without medicine.

From dawn, Asaad stands in line for water, and sometimes he does not have the strength to stand for long. Then he starts looking for firewood to cook what little he has. Even charging his phone has become a luxury in this fragile economy.

A few metres away, Sultan Sami lives with his family of seven after his home was destroyed. He said:

We search for water like people search for gold. Sometimes we wait a whole week for a single water tanker, and the aid is not enough for everyone.

He added:

Every tent has become a small market: one person sells bread, another charges phones, and a third exchanges oil for rice. This is our economy now, an economy of those who have nothing but patience.

An economy without productive spirit

Field reports show that Gaza’s economy has completely collapsed. Markets are closed, factories have shut down, and farms have dried up. More than 95% of the population suffer severe food insecurity, and nine out of ten people live below the poverty line.

Society has been transformed into one of forced consumption, with no production or investment, only limited exchange within a closed circle of need and deprivation.

In the absence of oversight, the black market has taken root as the main channel for securing goods, with essentials sold at double the price, which most people cannot afford.

People began selling or bartering the items they received from aid to meet their daily needs, while prices on the black market rose by more than 400% for some basic commodities.

This reality has produced a fragile, informal economic model based not on value or production, but on bartering and scarcity.

One trader said:

There is no longer a fixed price for any commodity; value is determined by scarcity. A kilo of flour may be equivalent to a box of medicine or a phone battery. No one deals in cash alone.

The lack of electricity and fuel has also disrupted refrigeration and transport networks, exacerbating the food crisis at a time when thousands of trucks are being prevented from entering through Israeli crossings.

An uncertain future and a temporary life

From a humanitarian perspective, some 2.2 million people in Gaza are living under unprecedented pressure, in tents that lack the basic necessities of life. This is at the same time that psychological and health crises are on the rise, and education and employment are lacking.

Aid organisations warn that the continuation of this situation could turn the ‘economy of survival’ into a permanent way of life, meaning the loss of an entire generation of children and young people.

One Palestinian in Gaza said:

We don’t dream of a job or a salary, we just dream of electricity and water coming back, and of sleeping one night without fear of hunger or cold.

In Gaza today, every day is a new battle for survival, and every tent is a story of patience and human resilience in the face of collapse.

It is an economy without prospects, but it still retains one thing that has not yet been destroyed: the will to live.

Featured image via the Canary

By Alaa Shamali

This post was originally published on Canary.