In Gaza, people find moments of normalcy, joy and resilience despite the horrors of war

On Oct. 29, Maha al-Sarsak and the rest of her family in northern Gaza celebrated her daughter Habeeba’s fifth birthday. 

Habeeba invited a small group of friends to the family’s tent, and everyone gathered around a white plastic stool that served as a table. They all shared namoura, a Middle Eastern cake made with semolina flour and soaked in sugary syrup. 

Sarsak said that she wanted a bigger and better celebration for her daughter, but she didn’t have the means — their tent was all that they had.

“We used to have real parties with balloons, cakes and soda. There was music. It was really nice,” she said. 

The family lost everything in the Israel-Hamas war and were displaced from their home in northern Gaza early into the conflict. But she said that she uses every opportunity to create a sense of normalcy for her daughter, even if it’s just for a short few minutes.

There is likely no one among the more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza who hasn’t been touched by war in some way. Over 43,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, and many have been injured and displaced. Most of Gaza is in ruins. Yet, among the daily horrors of war, people find moments of joy and resilience.  

“Memories are all we have as human beings,” Sarsak said, adding that she hoped to one day share a phone recording of the birthday with her daughter, once she’s older.

“I can show it to her and say, ‘Look Habeeba, we celebrated your birthday even in a tent. We had cake,’” Sarsak continued. 

The cake was a big deal because food, in general, is expensive — especially fresh produce. Anything they get is usually canned.

Aid workers have described Gaza as “hell on Earth.” The amount of aid that’s been getting in is the lowest it has been since last December, according to official Israeli figures.

That’s where the story of people like 24-year-old Yousef Abu Rabee comes in. 

Atalanta Sungurov, who is part of a group of farmers in the US that does solidarity work with Palestinians in Gaza, shared how Abu Rabee was determined to persevere and fight hunger in his community before he was killed in the fighting in October.

“Yousef was such a visionary,” she said.

He found joy in helping feed his neighbors and family, especially through farming. Abu Rabee had a small farm and a greenhouse in northern Gaza, but it was destroyed. Afterward, he and his farmer friends had to start from scratch.

“They found rotted vegetables that had been dried out, and they saved the seeds from those vegetables,” Sungurov explained.

By June, Abu Rabee had 10,000 strawberry plants.

“He loved strawberries. He was a glorious strawberry farmer,” she recalled. 

Later came eggplants, fava beans and squash.

Last month, Israeli forces intensified their attacks there and ordered residents to leave. Hamas had regrouped there, the military said, and the goal was to root them out. Quadcopter drones were a constant presence in the sky.

But Abu Rabee kept doing vegetable deliveries until Oct. 21, when he and two of his friends were killed in an Israeli drone strike.

“He deserved better. He deserved to be walking in those fields right now. I think of how much he loved the earth, and I think of how when he would plow he would take his shoes off so that his feet would touch the earth,” Sungurov said.

That’s how connected he was to the land.

Before he died, Abu Rabee distributed seedlings to people so that they could grow their own vegetables.

And he did get to taste the strawberries that he’d planted.

Producer Mohamed El Saif contributed to this report from Gaza.