GAZA / PNN /In Gaza, misery deepens by the day. Grief-stricken families and children find no respite, no time for play or relief, as survival has become the only pursuit.In tents crowded with widows and children, the daily search for scraps of stale bread has turned into a life-or-death struggle. For many families, especially women who lost their husbands in Israel’s war on Gaza, the sole focus has become finding bread and water to stay alive.The family of Nadia Abu Arar is among countless others trapped in this ordeal. Her husband was killed, leaving their children without a provider. Now a widow, she says she cannot meet her children’s basic needs in a war that spares neither the young nor the old. With food and clean water almost unattainable, even bread has become a desperate commodity.For her son Mohammed, childhood has been replaced by the role of breadwinner. Instead of sitting in a classroom or playing, he roams the rubble and streets in search of dry bread to feed his siblings.Nadia shares her tragedy. She lives in a single tent alongside five other widows and about 20 children. At night, the overcrowding suffocates them; bodies pressed together, feet entangled, with little air, no food, and no water. “We wait for morning just to escape the suffocation,” she says.By day, the children set out to scavenge scraps of bread left behind by others. They move together in groups, often walking through streets and alleys where the risk of shelling looms at any moment. Sometimes they even sift through piles of rubbish, hoping to find enough to bring home for their younger siblings.Nadia recalls one devastating day when her children returned without her youngest daughter, who went missing during their search for bread. Since then, she has wandered from street to street, among the ruins of bombed homes, searching for her. During one such search, she says, smoke from a nearby Israeli strike burned her face.Her son Mohammed, his face marked by hunger and exhaustion, says he and his siblings have grown weary of eating the stale bread they collect near rubbish heaps. “This bread will make us sick. We don’t want it, but we have no choice,” he says, fighting back tears. His only plea: “We just want fresh bread, flour, food and water. We are tired of this war.”The plight of Mohammed mirrors that of thousands of children across Gaza. For their mothers, like Nadia, despair is overwhelming. “God is our only witness against those who did this to us. We have no food or water to survive,” she says.Another widow, Um Rami Abu Arar, lost her husband and grown sons who once supported the family. She now shares the tent with Nadia and others. “Life here is unbearable,” she says, describing the suffocating conditions and lack of resources. Each morning, she sends groups of children out with plastic bags to collect bread, instructing them to stay together for safety. When they return, they roast the scraps over fire, trying to disinfect them and sprinkle salt to cover the stench.Today, more than one million children in Gaza live under catastrophic humanitarian conditions since the war began on October 7, 2023.According to United Nations agencies, children are the most affected: many have lost parents and relatives and spend their days searching for a crust of bread or contaminated water. Health experts warn that relying on stale bread and unsafe food exposes them to severe malnutrition, dehydration and life-threatening disease.With the blockade tightening and supplies of food and clean water nearly exhausted, UN bodies warn that half of Gaza’s population is now facing extreme food insecurity, with tens of thousands already at risk of famine.This story was produced as part of the Qarib programme, implemented by the French media development agency CFI and funded by the French Development Agency (AFD).