Amid the uncertainty of forced displacement, Fadi and Nisreen struggle to rebuild their lives in the West Bank. With no income, mounting debt, and the constant threat of eviction, their story mirrors that of thousands of Palestinian families trapped in a cycle of loss, where even the simplest dreams are overshadowed by the daily struggle for survival.
‘I haven’t worked since 7 October 2023. Nothing, nothing at all.’ says Fadi, smoking a cigarette. His situation is the same as that of thousands of Palestinian workers in the occupied West Bank who have had their permits to work in Israel revoked since that date. For nearly 2 years, they have been without a stable income.
Nisreen used to raise hens to supplement the family’s income. Every day at dawn, her husband, Fadi, would leave the Nour Shams refugee camp to work as a bricklayer for Israeli companies. They weren’t wealthy, and the bills barely added up, but they managed. They rented their own home, and every now and then, they could afford a picnic with their children or buy a few toys.
Nisreen and Fadi, together with their 2 children Kinaan and Souhaib, had to leave the Nur Shams refugee camp during the heavy Israeli military operation against armed groups in July 2025. They now live with their 2 children in a house that had been abandoned for 30 years before they arrived. When they first moved in, the landlords told them they could stay without paying rent, as long as they took care of the property.
Thanks to EU-funded cash assistance and sheer determination, they managed to buy a few very old pieces of furniture to have at least the bare minimum. But much more needs to be done.
The house is uninhabitable: it has no sewage system, no glass in the windows – just large lintels – holes in the ceiling, and cracks everywhere. ‘Every time it rains, the house floods’, Nisreen says.
‘And we haven’t spent a winter here yet, so I don’t know how we’ll manage.’ As winters in the West Bank can be quite cold and rainy, that uncertainty weighs even more.
Despite all this, it’s impossible not to notice the beautiful view from the huge, glassless window in what they made into a small living room: the sun-drenched city of Tulkarem stretches towards the calm, blue Mediterranean Sea on the horizon. The scene is in stark contrast to the hardship of living in such a house – without even running water for a shower and with only one light bulb, its power line kindly provided by a neighbour.
‘Do you have any news about your house in the camp?’, I ask. ‘It’s totally burnt down’, Fadi tells me. ‘Destroyed and demolished.’
Here, too, their fate is not unique. It’s what happened to more than 30,000 Palestinian refugees living in the camps in Tulkarem, Jenin, and Nour Shams after being forcibly displaced by the Israeli army fighting armed groups in the camps.
In the background, their 2 children play with a fluffy cat who lets them do anything. ‘This is Bulbul. We took him with us when we fled from the camp’, says Nisreen, smiling. ‘He’s also displaced, just like us.’
‘Do you have any hope of returning?’, I ask. ‘Hope is all we have’, Nisreen tells me.
Life for all Palestinian families living in forced displacement in the West Bank is extremely hard. They have no income in a place where a family of 4 needs about €500 a month just to cover basic expenses – electricity, water, rent. ‘The cash you gave us helped. We bought some furniture and paid some basic expenses, but we don’t know what to do anymore’, Nisreen tells me. Now the landlord has started asking us for €150 a month in rent, and I’m afraid we’ll have to leave here, too.’
The European Union is working with UNICEF in the West Bank to provide cash assistance to 3,000 forcibly displaced Palestinian families (close to 15,000 people), to ease at least part of the financial, mental and emotional burden of displacement.
‘How do you pay for everything? How do you buy food?’, I ask. ‘Debt’, Nisreen replies with a sigh.
‘Now and then, some neighbours help us out, give us something, but it is really hard.’
For those living in forced displacement, daily life is dominated by immediate needs. Faced with constant challenges and the struggle to secure even the basics. The future often feels out of reach.
There are too many problems, one on top of the other, and putting food on the table is a daily struggle.
How can one dream or think about the future if they don’t even know whether they’ll eat tonight?
