As curtains draw on 2025, Palestinians in Gaza are ushering in the new year with exhaustion, grief and only a fragile hope that their "endless nightmare" might end, as daily life in the battered territory remains a struggle for survival.
Much of Gaza's infrastructure lies in ruins, electricity remains scarce and hundreds of thousands of people live in makeshift tents after being repeatedly displaced by Israel's two-year genocidal war that was triggered by Hamas' October 2023 incursion.
"We in the Gaza Strip are living in an endless nightmare," said Hanaa Abu Amra, a displaced woman in her thirties living in Gaza City.
"We hope that this nightmare will end in 2026 ... The least we can ask for is a normal life – to see electricity restored, the streets return to normal and to walk without tents lining the roads," she said.
Across Gaza, a territory of more than 2 million people, scenes of hardship are commonplace.
