Since the beginning of the Israeli genocide and the imposition of a total blockade on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, water desalination plants have almost completely shut down due to severe fuel shortages.
"The harassment by Israeli settlers had become unbearable," said Rashid, a young mother, as she stood leaning on the metal doorframe of her home in Ras Ein el-Auja in the occupied West Bank. Nearby, a few suitcases and other belongings sat in the corner, neatly packed. "There is no safety left. We've been suffering for three years, but now the provocations increased," Rashid told DW, speaking of how settlers entered their home.
According to the UN, more than 1,800 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians about five per day were documented in 2025. Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has approved the issuance of gun licences to Israelis in 18 additional illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, as the right-wing government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushes to expand illegal outposts that undermine prospects for a two-state solution.
At the core of violence lies emotional rupture, not only when harm is inflicted intentionally, but also when life is interrupted by forces beyond one's control. Forced displacement is one such rupture. It does not simply change location; it reshapes identity, possibility, and the nervous system itself. For those who leave home under threat, hunger, or despair, exile is not a chapter that closes. It becomes a psychological terrain carried within the body and mind.
On December 3, Israel announced that the Rafah border crossing with Egypt would reopen in the coming days, allowing Palestinians to leave Gaza for the first time in months. The statement was, of course, framed as a humanitarian gesture that would allow those in urgent need to travel for medical care, education or family reunification to leave. However, Israel's announcement was met almost immediately with Egypt's denial, followed by a firm rejection from several Arab and Muslim states.
Israel has announced it will reopen the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt in the next few days as part of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire. According to the World Health Organization, at least 16,500 sick and wounded people need to leave Gaza for medical care. However, the border will only open in one direction: for Palestinians to exit. Since the ceasefire began, at least 347 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and 889 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The peremptory order caught him out of the house. When he returned, his family and most of his neighbors had already fled. He hurried to pack two changes of clothes in the first bag he found and, before setting off on his motorcycle, he tied a white cloth to a long pole: It was a flag as a sign of peace, to avoid any attacks on the three-hour journey, says the social leader, who requests anonymity.
This post is the second in a three-part series based on a 2023 qualitative study conducted by The Fund for Armenian Relief's (FAR's) Child Protection Center (CPC) to explore the psychological and social dynamics of forced displacement, using Armenia's integration of more than 115,000 displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) as a contemporary case study. In, we examined how displacement disrupts identity and belonging and efforts to understand the psychological impacts on both displaced individuals and host societies.
Hundreds of Palestinians have fled Gaza City, piling their few remaining possessions onto pick-up trucks and donkey carts as Israel's deadly bombings and forced displacement campaign intensifies in the area. People fleeing the Israeli military's relentless bombardment have begun setting up makeshift tents amid miserable conditions in an area west of central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp, to the south of Gaza City near Deir el-Balah.
