For residents of the battered territory, daily life is a struggle for survival. Much of Gaza's infrastructure lies in ruins, electricity remains scarce and hundreds of thousands of people live in makeshift tents after being repeatedly displaced by the two years of fighting that began with Hamas's attack on Israel in October 2023.

"We in the Gaza Strip are living in an endless nightmare," said Hanaa Abu Amra, a displaced woman in her thirties living in Gaza City. "We hope that this nightmare will end in 2026 ...The least we can ask for is a normal life-- to see electricity restored, the streets return to normal and to walk without tents lining the roads," she said. Across Gaza, a territory of more than two million people, scenes of hardship are commonplace.

Children queue with plastic containers to collect water, while rows of tents stretch across streets and open spaces, sheltering families who have lost their homes. What were once bustling neighbourhoods now bear the scars of bombardment, with daily activity reduced to the bare essentials. For many, the end of the year is a moment to mourn as much as to hope. In Gaza City, a teenager painted "2026" on his tent, while an AFP journalist observed a local artist sculpting the same in sand in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza. The outgoing year brought relentless loss and fear, said Shireen Al-Kayali. "We bid farewell to 2025 with deep sorrow and grief," she said."We lost a lot of people and our possessions. We lived a difficult and harsh life, displaced from one city to another, under bombardment and in terror." (Bssnews)