Night fell over Gaza City in the north of the Palestinian territory devastated and besieged by the Israeli army. The sound of drones harassing and spying was constant. Sleep was hard to come by. "We are living under psychological pressure, a constant anxiety, because of the ongoing aggression and the siege," said Zulfiqar Swairjo, a pharmacist living in the Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood, whose pharmacy had been destroyed, on Tuesday, April 29. Like all those interviewed, he was contacted by phone. In an unprecedented situation in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli authorities have denied foreign journalists access to the Gaza Strip for the past 19 months.

For two months, nothing has entered the tortured territory, be it through commercial or humanitarian channels: no food, no medicine, no fuel. Israeli authorities imposed a blockade on March 2. Sixteen days later, they broke the ceasefire with Hamas, which had come into effect on January 19. "No aid will enter Gaza," reiterated Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz in mid-April.

The stranglehold and strikes, preceded by 16 months of an unlimited war launched by Israel in retaliation for the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, have exhausted the civilian population. "I am tired. Fear and bombings are keeping us awake," testified Chaima, a resident of Beit Lahiya, in the north. The sound of an explosion echoed behind her voice in a voice message sent to Le Monde. The sense of danger is constant. "We are not living, we are surviving," corrected Ziad Medoukh, a university professor speaking from Gaza City.

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