For them, 2025 will have been an "endless nightmare". In Gaza, ravaged by war, the inhabitants ask only for a little normalcy for the new year: electricity, solid houses and the realization of a peace that is still hypothetical.

For the 2.2 million inhabitants of the Palestinian territory, daily life is a constant struggle for survival.

Much of the infrastructure in the Gaza Strip is in ruins. Electricity remains scarce, water is often contaminated, and hundreds of thousands of people live in makeshift tents after being repeatedly displaced by two years of fighting.

An eternity has passed since the start of the war, triggered by Hamas's unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.

"We are living in an endless nightmare," Hanaa Abou Amra, a displaced woman in her thirties, told AFP.

"We hope it will end in 2026," she adds. "The least we can ask for is a normal life — to see the electricity restored, the streets return to normal, and to walk without tents lining the roads."

- "Deep sadness" -

Distress is everywhere. Children queue with plastic jerrycans to collect water. Makeshift shelters fill the streets between the wreckage of bombed-out buildings.

The once vibrant neighborhoods are now gloomy. And with the end of the year comes a time of hope, but also of mourning.

In Gaza City, a teenage girl painted "2026" on her tent. In the Deir el-Balah area, in the center of the territory, an artist sculpted it on the beach. Here, hope is barely more solid than sand.

"We bid farewell to 2025 with deep sadness," admits Shirine al-Kayali, a resident of Gaza. "We have lost many loved ones and our possessions. We have been displaced from one city to another, under bombardment and in terror."

What she describes applies to countless Gazans forced to flee, often urgently, from Israeli strikes and armored vehicles. Entire families have been uprooted, decimated, livelihoods destroyed, communities fragmented.

- "Leaving the pain behind" -

But some cling to the idea that the new year could bring lasting peace. A truce has been in place since October, but it remains extremely fragile and the theoretical continuation of the peace process is at a standstill.

For many Gazans, hope is a militant act of resilience.

"We always aspire to a better life in the new year, and I call on the free world to help our oppressed people so that we can get our lives back," says Khaled Abdel Majid, 50, who lives in a tent in the Jabalia camp (north).

Faten al-Hindawi also wants to believe in a "year of hope, prayer, determination and beautiful stories", leaving behind "the pain of 2025".

Meanwhile, the reality of winter is relentless, the bad weather has flooded the tents and the cold has claimed victims.

Humanitarian agencies warn that shortages of food, drinking water and medical supplies persist, and the situation could worsen further as Israel has threatened to ban a total of 37 NGOs from entering Gaza.

Amidst the ruins, only modest aspirations remain for the coming year: security, stability, dignity.

Faten al-Hindawi, neatly dressed, holds on. "I hope that the reconstruction of Gaza will begin in 2026. Gaza was beautiful and we hope that it will be again," says the woman in her forties.