With a million residents of Gaza displaced from their homes due to Israeli bombardments, searching for safe haven in the border city of Rafah, five families have moved to a chicken farm, living within its long concrete walls and converting battery cages into bunk beds. The war erupted when militants from the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) launched an attack on southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,200 people, according to Israeli statistics. In response, Israel carried out a military offensive that devastated the region and killed over 27,800 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Gaza. More than 85 percent of Gaza's population of 2.3 million has fled their homes, with about one million people streaming into Rafah near the Egyptian border. Many of them are living in crowded tents in open areas or along the beaches.
The Hanoun family, one of the five families that have moved to live on the farm, believes that life there represents the lowest level of existence. Umm Mahdi Hanoun, standing among the cages, stated, "Today we are living in a place suitable for animals... imagine a child sleeping in a chicken cage." She added, "The place is very bad. Water drips on us. The cold is extremely hard on the children, the elderly, and the sick... sometimes we wish morning would not come."
Her son Mahdi said that they lived in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza, which was bombarded early in the war. He explained, "We moved to Al-Zawaida. Because of the shelling, we looked for another place but couldn’t find one due to our large number. A friend of my aunt's son told us that there is a chicken farm in Rafah with cages." He continued, "So we came here and suffered. There are insects and mosquitoes, and we have children," initially believing that they would only stay there for a few days. However, over time they had to accept the reality and settle for the chicken farm as their home for a longer period. They used metal sheets from the cages as beds and also utilized a metal stove on the ground to bake bread when they find flour.
