When Privacy disappears: Life inside Gaza’s displacement Shelters
When Privacy disappears: Life inside Gaza’s displacement Shelters
https://www.juancole.com/2026/05/disappears-displacement-shelters.html
Publish Date: 2026-05-25 00:06:00
Source Domain: www.juancole.com
Shelters, including a temporary improvised bathroom set up between the tents. Photo by the author, used with permission.
By Marwa Rommaneh
In the early morning hours, when schools are supposed to prepare to welcome students, the yards are filled with men sleeping on the ground. Movement begins before sunrise, and lines gradually form outside sanitation facilities. Gaza’s schools are no longer places of education, but have been transformed into displacement shelters, hosting hundreds of families within a single shared space.
In the first week of the war on Gaza in October 2023, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) reported that around 218,600 displaced people were sheltering in 92 of its schools across the Gaza Strip, while many others sought refuge in government schools and other buildings. Over time, these numbers grew, and overcrowding became an entrenched daily reality.
In these environments, it does not take long to realize that something fundamental has disappeared: privacy is no longer part of life.
A continuous collective scene
Everything that once took place behind the walls of a home is now exposed. Cooking, washing, resting, and daily routines all unfold in a single shared space, in front of everyone. There are no rooms, no closed doors, and no corners that offer even a moment of solitude. Life here is not lived separately, but in constant overlap, where the details of each family become part of a continuous collective scene.
This overlap is not only about limited space — it is also about the loss of the ability to be alone, even briefly. Silence becomes rare, and rest is practised cautiously, as if it were temporary in a place that does not allow stability.
During my involvement in polio vaccination campaigns in Gaza, where I worked in data entry and field support, the experience was not limited to its administrative dimension. It was a daily confrontation with this reality. Reaching children required navigating overcrowded spaces…
