Fights in bread lines, despair in shelters: War threatens to unravel Gaza’s close-knit society

By ISABEL DEBRE
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — Fistfights break out in bread lines. Residents wait hours for a gallon of brackish water that makes them sick. Scabies, diarrhea and respiratory infections rip through overcrowded shelters. And some families have to choose who eats. With the Israel-Hamas war in its second month and more than 10,000 people killed in Gaza, trapped civilians are struggling to survive without electricity or running water. Over half a million displaced people have crammed into hospitals and U.N. schools-turned-shelters in the south. Each day has become a mind-numbing cycle of searching for bread and water and waiting in lines. A sense of desperation has strained Gaza’s close-knit society and even emboldened some Palestinians to vent their anger against the ruling Hamas militant group.