37-year-old father of six from a-Nuseirat Refugee Camp
We haven’t been able to pay rent regularly for years. We lived for a while in an apartment where the rent was covered by a charity, and then we had to leave and split up - my wife went back to her parents’ house with the kids, and I stayed with friends. After a year, relatives paid for an apartment for us for a few months, and then we got funding from another charity, and after that, we had to split up again. It happens again and again.
Three months ago, our current landlord decided to evict us because we were behind on rent. We gathered all our belongings, and I stored them in a room in our neighbor’s house, and then my wife took the kids to live at her parents’ again. This time, I slept in a tent on the beach. Sometimes I would sleep on a bench in front of al-’Awda Hosptial in Nuseirat R.C.
“My wife and I live in a state of constant worry. Some nights we don’t sleep at all, especially when rent is soon due and we have no way to pay.”
That lasted two months, and then in October 2022, my wife’s family started pushing me to take her and the children out of the house because their financial situation deteriorated, and they were having trouble hosting everyone. It was winter, but we had no choice and moved to live in a tent on the street. It was terribly cold and rainy, especially at night. One time, a man passed by and asked how we were doing, and a while later, we found out he posted our story on social media, and through that, he actually helped us rent an apartment through a charity that’s going to pay our rent until March 2023.
My dreams are for us to have a house to live in together, the whole family, and for me to have a job that will allow me to support the family and not rely on charity.
* Testimony given to B'Tselem Field Researcher Khaled al-‘Azayzeh on 28 November 2022.