As the war continues in the Gaza Strip, life becomes increasingly difficult for those who they have found refuge in Rafa and the surrounding areas. Testimonies reaching the BBC from people who experience hell every day they are shocked with their lives in danger every second. They fight daily for their survival without food, sleep in the cold and rain and at the same time they offer help to whoever needs it thereby helping each other.

“We woke up to a new day, hoping it would be better than yesterday”

59-year-old Sami Abu Omar has currently taken refuge in Rafah after fleeing Khan Younis.

“It was a difficult night. There was intense shelling. Any person in this condition should get used to sleeping from one to one and a half hours only. I woke up at 5 am and prayed at dawn and then I got ready for my volunteer work. We woke up to a new day, hoping it would be a better day than yesterday.

I work in humanitarian aid. We started our day by cooking to help displaced families in Rafa. We hope to make 2,200 meals for these families today. Today it is a bit cold and there is a chance of rain. We are preparing lentil soup to be distributed to displaced families because they need it. I am one of those families. I have been displaced from more than one place. I dream of returning home safe and sound. The situation is getting so difficult, especially in Rafa”

“I woke up in the night because the tent was so cold”

Mosa Al-Dos, 26, is a lawyer by profession and is also in Rafah.

“I woke up more than once in the night because it was so cold on stage”says.

“I find it difficult to sleep because of the lack of mattresses and blankets. There are a lot of queues today – at least three hours long. Now I’m two kilometers away from my tent, I’m trying to find an internet connection, but it’s still very weak. I walk slowly, slowly away from the stage”he adds.

“A typical day for me starts with the search for clean water”

28-year-old Dr. Haya Hijazi was a gynecologist in Tal al-Hawa before the war broke out. He worked at Al Shifa Hospital until the beginning of October. Today he lives in a tent on the Egypt-Rafa border.

When her neighborhood was targeted by Israeli forcesshe fled the north from her sister’s home in central Gaza, and was then forced to flee south again.

Dr. Haya has tried to provide free counseling to women since the beginning of the war. She has been active in raising donations through her social media and has used them to buy medicine and hygiene products for women in Gaza.

“A typical day for me starts with search for clean water. Then I search for flour to bake and wood to light a fire to eat. I try to take up new initiatives through which I can help people and every day I volunteer at a nearby medical station to help patients”he told the BBC.

“Food is becoming a luxury for us in Gaza”

The 22-year-old Nagham Atef Mezied, located in Deir el-Balah. She is a medical student and volunteer doctor.

She tells the BBC: “It is now 9am. This is my breakfast. I usually have breakfast at 6am, but now we try to delay breakfast so we don’t have to eat more than one meal a day. This breakfast includes cheese, herbs, pepper and olive oil on the bread, which is known as mankouche.

That’s all I eat until the evening, if we’re lucky enough to have another meal then, otherwise all until tomorrow. And we consider ourselves more fortunate than our brothers and sisters in the north who have no food at all.

At the breakfast table earlier, we had this bread, “Mankoushe” with potatoes, salad, eggs, falafel, beans…but now so many families rely on this bread just to survive.

The prices are so high, even for the basics, and offering a decent meal of meat or chicken became a luxury”