TEHRAN – It is impossible to say with confidence that Palestinians in Gaza can endure much longer without solutions that remain nowhere in sight.

This raises troubling questions about what the Gaza Strip’s future will look like if the current humanitarian catastrophe continues unabated.

More than a thousand days after the genocidal war, the overpopulated and tiny enclave is experiencing a humanitarian disaster on every level. Humanitarian workers say the reality has become so devastating that it is nearly impossible to convey to anyone who is not living inside the Strip.

Statistics reveal only part of the bleak picture. These numbers alone cannot capture the true depth of the suffering.

To grasp even a small part of the suffering endured by individuals and families in Gaza, it is worth highlighting several examples and ways of life that have been transformed beyond recognition since the U.S.-backed Zionist regime’s genocide began.

A father who had lost three sons and was left with only his daughter, captures the plight of most Palestinians when he was asked by the few reporters who have survived in Gaza about his patience.

He replied with words that are difficult to forget:

“By God’s grace, I remain patient and seek my reward from Him, and my sons are martyrs in His sight. But our story in Gaza after this genocidal war does not end with patience and acceptance of what has befallen us.”

“Before the genocidal war, there was little difference between having sons or daughters, because life was simple and manageable and did not require a man’s constant presence in the home. After the genocidal war, however, having men in the household became essential, as every aspect of daily life grew overwhelmingly difficult.”

“My three sons could barely keep up with the family’s daily needs: hauling water and filling containers by hand, securing the tent with stakes, carrying belongings during displacement, shopping, gathering firewood, and countless other exhausting daily tasks that required walking long distances under the blazing sun or through the cold of winter. After they were killed, everything became extraordinarily difficult. My daughter simply cannot shoulder such physically demanding work.”

Another scene is no less heartbreaking. A father lost his home when it was bombed with everyone inside, his wife, his four sons, and their families, and with it, every penny he had saved.

Civil defense teams searched the ruins and recovered the body of only one son. No trace of the rest of the family was found, and for nearly two years they have remained officially listed as missing.

The father has pleaded with every authority he can reach to help him learn what became of his family. However, making his ordeal even more painful, the Israeli regime’s security agencies have intensified the psychological pressure on this father by leading him to believe, through various means, that his family is alive but being held captive.

The father has pleaded with every authority he can reach to help him learn what became of his family. Making his ordeal even more painful, the Israeli regime’s security agencies have intensified the psychological pressure on him by leading him to believe, through various means, that his family is alive but being held captive.

A third tragedy has left thousands of Palestinians classified as “sole survivors”. These are individuals who lost every member of their family, with only one person surviving. No parents, no children, no brothers or sisters remain. No one can truly comprehend the psychological burden they carry every minute of every day for the rest of their lives.

Among the forms of suffering that are almost unimaginable elsewhere in the world is the footage emerging of families clearing the rubble of their destroyed homes. They are doing so with nothing but their hands and axes; not to clear the rubble itself, but to extract the steel reinforcing bars they can use to build makeshift shelters after their worn-out tents have fallen apart.

Virtually nothing is available in the markets, and whatever can be found is sold at extremely high prices because of severe shortages.

The regime has barred nearly all essential supplies from entering Gaza.

Only a small number of aid trucks are allowed in, meeting only a fraction of the population’s needs.

Meanwhile, most so-called “dual-use” items are either banned or allowed in only extremely limited quantities. These include timber, steel, cement, livestock and animal feed, farming and fishing supplies, vehicles, lubricants, energy equipment, electricity infrastructure, fuel, communications equipment such as mobile phones and their accessories, and countless other essentials.

If the world’s leading public opinion research organizations were to survey people across different countries with questions such as: Do you have a refrigerator, a television, a washing machine, electricity, and cooking gas? Are public and private transportation available? Do you own or rent a home? Are your children attending school or university? Do you have access to clean drinking water? Can you travel freely and return home? The overwhelming majority would answer “yes.” In Gaza, however, the answer would be “no.”

Today, most of the Palestinian refugees have no access to cooking gas, forcing them to burn plastic because neither timber nor firewood is available. They drink water of uncertain origin that is unsafe to consume. There are no functioning schools, universities, or educational institutions. Two-thirds of the population is homeless, living amid rubble, rats, insects, vermin, and sewage. In short, the Zionist regime has stripped Gaza of the basic conditions necessary for human life.

A clinical psychologist in the Strip was asked about the cases he has been treating. He described several examples, all sharing one common feature: psychological disorders resulting from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The number of cases is enormous, ranging from mild to moderate and severe.

He explained that before the genocide, relatively few people sought psychological counseling, and professionals often had to work hard to persuade those in need to seek treatment. But the immense psychological trauma left by the American-backed genocidal war has erased much of that hesitation, and people are now actively searching for mental health specialists.

The catastrophic conditions in Gaza are not ones that people can endure indefinitely, and many remain uncertain about what the future holds. Given these circumstances, one might assume that Gazans are considering emigration to preserve what remains of their humanity, and few would blame them if they did.

Yet what is striking is that the overwhelming majority do not want to leave Gaza. Quite the opposite: many of those who managed to leave during the early stages of the genocide are desperate to return, willingly bearing heavy financial and emotional burdens to reunite with those making their way back.

It is no exaggeration to say that many people would rather die in the Gaza Strip than emigrate. This is a reality known only to those who have sacrificed everything in a broader struggle to return to their homes, now occupied by Israeli settlers.

Perhaps they feel that when the occupying regime takes away their freedom, resisting that enemy becomes a source of honor, dignity, and national duty. And if they are killed by its aggression, they die as martyrs.

What they fear more is losing their freedom and dignity in exile, where they may feel powerless to resist or express their suffering, forced to live a life without purpose, identity, or a sense of self-worth.

The people of Gaza live under crushing material and psychological hardship. They are not thinking about emigration, nor do they fear death. Some may even welcome it, having lost so many of those they loved and longing to be reunited with them.

They have lost hope in Arab solidarity, in humanity, in the Islamic and Muslim world, in governments, and in people. They no longer place their hope in anyone on earth; their hope is fixed only on heaven.

They would rather die than seek safety through emigration. So what if the extremely superior and highly sophisticated Zionist regime’s military launches another genocidal campaign on Gaza and sheds even more of its blood? The consensus from Gaza appears to be that its population will resist with whatever strength they have left rather than abandon their homeland.