The lives torn apart by a year of war

The kibbutz was a strong community, where people lived and operated together as one. Neighbours were more like extended family. It is one of a small number of kibbutzim in Israel that still operates as a collective. But now, the collective is splintered - psychologically and physically. About one in 10 were killed. Only a few of the survivors have returned to their homes. Some travel back to the kibbutz daily to work, but can't face overnight stays. Many, after months in a hotel, are now living in prefabricated buildings on another kibbutz 40km (25 miles) away.

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The community, built up over nearly 80 years, is being tested like never before, and its future is uncertain. There are reminders everywhere of those who didn't survive, says Dafna Gerstner, who grew up in Be'eri, and spent 19 terrifying hours on 7 October holed up in a safe room - designed to protect residents from rocket attacks. "You look to the left and it's like, 'Oh it's my friend who lost her parents.' You look to the right, 'It's my friend who lost her father…' It's everywhere you look."

Displacement means uncertainty. Constant fear. Will the child, sent for a bucket of water, come home? Or will they return to find their home flattened, and their family buried under the rubble? These are the questions that haunt Abed-Alrahman’s young widow, Nawara, every day. "There is always shelling and we are always afraid, terrified. I constantly hold my children close and hug them," she says. The Israel Defense Forces tell people to move to "humanitarian zones". People flee but often find no safety.

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When they move, the struggle to locate food, firewood and medicine in an unfamiliar place starts again. The al-Najjars are now back in their family home, but they know they may have to flee again. That is the inescapable reality of their lives after a year of war. In the words of Nawara, there is "no safe place in the Gaza Strip". Nawara complains of the overflowing sewage in the street. The lack of medical supplies. Like so many in Gaza, with no income, she depends on what food her in-laws or charities can supply.