Mohammed Zediah may count as one of Gaza's lucky ones. "Blessed" is the word he uses.
Two years of war have left Gaza in ruins. Thousands have been killed. Many more are displaced and malnourished. Zediah has found shelter in a small, crowded room he shares with eight family members. He is able to cook lunch each day over an open fire. Once a week, he fills up water bottles from a nearby communal water distribution point.
When a mosque across the street from the house where he was staying earlier in the war with 44 members of his extended family was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike, shrapnel flew at them from every direction. No one was seriously injured. Zediah has said goodbye to 10 friends, but not to any direct family members. He knows he's an outlier.
"We have had to constantly adapt to a strange and difficult life," the graphic designer said in a WhatsApp message sent in early October from the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Zediah, 25, is from Gaza City, in the north, where Israel has launched a ground offensive aimed at defeating what it describes as Hamas's "last stronghold" in the Palestinian enclave. He has been displaced multiple times across the strip. His father's friend is hosting him in Nuseirat.
