Over the past two years in Gaza, the world has witnessed one of the most severe attacks on a civilian population in recent history, yet it has been unwilling or unable to stop it. More than 66,200 people have been killed and nearly 169,000 injured, meaning roughly one in ten Palestinians in Gaza have become casualties of Israel’s military campaign.
After the Israeli army destroyed a mosque and wrote on it in Hebrew, someone from Gaza inscribed on the dome: “A promise we will rebuild it.” Gaza City, 24 February 2025.
On the left: Israeli bombs fall on Khan Younis, 18 June 2024. On the right: the ruins of the Bank of Palestine in Gaza City, 24 February 2025.
Israel claims its target is Hamas, but over 80% of the dead are civilians. A UN human rights report has concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide.
Survivors have faced prolonged famine due to Israel’s deliberate policy of cutting off food supplies, and the Israeli military has rendered much of Gaza uninhabitable. A recent survey by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found that about 70% of Gaza’s buildings have been severely damaged.
People hope to receive new tents in Khan Younis after theirs were lost to the tide, 25 November 2024.
People return to southern Gaza with their belongings, 27 January 2025.
Life continues amid the destruction of the Jabaliya camp, February 2025.
While the statistics are shocking, they remain impersonal. Through her photographs, Enas Tantesh has captured the intimate reality behind these numbers—what it truly means when your home and community are destroyed.
Before the war began with Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, Tantesh had never considered becoming a photographer. She was finishing high school and following in her father’s footsteps as a beloved local swimming instructor, teaching children in her hometown of Beit Lahiya.
As the Israeli bombardment intensified and more of Gaza’s journalists fled or were killed, her older sister Malak began writing for the Guardian and other European newspapers. Around the same time, in spring 2024, Enas started photographing the chaos and devastation around her using only a Samsung mobile phone and a few tips from her father.
Her photos over the next 18 months depict an entire population reduced to nomads and scavengers on their own land.
Children search for drinking water in Beit Hanoun, 3 February 2025.
Nine out of ten people in Gaza have been forced from their homes due to bombing or Israeli evacuation orders. Like nearly every Palestinian family, the Tanteshes have packed what they could carry, moved across Gaza to crowd into a relative’s home, and then moved again when that home came under fire—repeating this process multiple times.
The family has relocated 11 times and, like most in Gaza, now lives in makeshift tents made from wood, cloth, and plastic sheeting.
A cat sits in the rubble of a home in Beit Lahiya, 10 February 2025.
Tantesh’s photos convey the transience, despair, and constant insecurity of daily life for a traumatized people navigating a ruined urban landscape. Her perspective reminds us that survival isn’t just about finding shelter, water, and enough to eat. It’s also about seeking moments of normalcy and human connection whenever possible: sharing a meal with family, watching children play, or observing one of Gaza’s cats maintaining its elegance, impeccably groomed and aloof amid the devastation.
Clockwise from top left: Enas’s uncle tends to the plants.Around his tent in Rafah, April 29, 2024; Enas’s sister, Malak A Tantesh; fruit from the surviving orange trees on the family farm in Beit Lahiya, January 31, 2025; crops around the family’s tent in Khan Younis, December 10, 2024; Enas’s father hugs the tree he planted before the war began, in Beit Lahiya, January 31, 2025.
Tantesh has faced suspicion and abuse while doing her work. Passersby sometimes curse her, assuming she is one of the growing number of people who share images of others’ suffering online without context or permission to boost their own fundraising. She was once detained by Hamas while working on the street, questioned about her motives and credentials, but released after a brief interrogation.
Throughout the war, Tantesh has developed resilience and composure. On one assignment, she photographed a man undergoing surgery for an infected stomach wound in one of Gaza’s partially destroyed hospitals. She was allowed into the cramped operating room on the condition that she assist by passing surgical tools and swabs while the patient’s abdomen was opened.
When a beachside cafe was shelled just a block away from her family’s temporary home in Gaza City, Tantesh documented the aftermath, taking pictures of the victims that were too graphic to publish.
Like all Palestinians in Gaza, Tantesh has grown accustomed to death. “It has become routine,” she said. “People see something terrible and just keep walking.”
Evidence is mounting that Israel is targeting journalists in Gaza, with 248 killed so far. Tantesh has learned to live with fear and minimize risks, always watching the sky for deadly drones.
She said the most dangerous place she had worked was at Gaza port, where Israeli patrol boats would regularly fire machine guns along the shore.
In the family’s apartment in Gaza City, one room facing the sea had a bullet hole in the wall. Her father would forbid the children from entering during shootings, but Tantesh often sneaked in to take photos from its vantage point over the beach.
Earlier in the year, the family returned to Beit Lahiya in the north, and Tantesh’s pictures captured the painful homecoming. She and her sister tried to find their family house among the ruins but eventually had to be guided by a neighbor because every flattened street looked the same.
She and her sister climbed one of the few remaining multistory buildings, risking Israeli snipers to get a view of the devastation.
“Those photographs of my own home were the hardest I ever had to take,” Tantesh said.
Frequently Asked Questions
Of course Here is a list of FAQs about Two Years of Displacement and Destruction in Gaza A Photo Essay designed to be clear concise and in a natural tone
General Beginner Questions
1 What is this photo essay about
Its a collection of photographs documenting the immense human cost physical destruction and daily struggles faced by people in Gaza over a twoyear period of conflict and blockade
2 Why was this photo essay created
To provide a visual testimony of the impact of war and displacement putting a human face on the statistics and helping people outside Gaza understand the reality of the situation
3 Who are the subjects of these photos
The photos primarily feature Palestinian civilians including children families the elderly medical workers and rescue teamsordinary people living through extraordinary circumstances
4 Where were these photos taken
The photos were taken in various locations across the Gaza Strip including cities like Gaza City and Khan Younis refugee camps hospitals schools and the ruins of residential neighborhoods
5 Who took the photographs
The photographs were taken by photojournalists and documentary photographers both international and local Palestinian journalists who were on the ground in Gaza
Impact Purpose Questions
6 What is the main message or feeling the essay tries to convey
It aims to convey the profound loss resilience and dignity of a population enduring prolonged hardship highlighting the urgent humanitarian crisis
7 How can photos communicate something that news reports cant
Powerful images can evoke an immediate emotional response create a deeper sense of empathy and make abstract concepts like displacement and destruction tangible and personal
8 What do you hope people will do after viewing this essay
The hope is that viewers will be moved to learn more about the context share the stories to raise awareness and support humanitarian organizations providing aid
Content Context Questions
9 What kind of scenes does the essay show
It shows a range of scenes from the immediate aftermath of airstrikes and people searching rubble for survivors to more intimate moments of daily life in overcrowded shelters and temporary tents
10 Does it only show destruction or are there other themes
While destruction is a major theme it also focuses heavily on themes of resilience community support childhood interrupted and the struggle to maintain a
