For 500 days since an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza Strip's deadliest war, Mohammed Abu Mursa has grappled with "humiliation, suffering and bloodshed" in his fight for survival.

Abu Mursa and his family have been displaced more than a dozen times since the war began, moving from place to place across the Palestinian territory in a desperate attempt to stay safe, he said.

"It's been 500 days of humiliation, suffering and bloodshed," said the resident of northern Gaza, finally able to return home after a fragile ceasefire took hold on January 19.

"I just hope the ceasefire holds," he added.

"There is only destruction around us."

Like the Abu Mursa family, nearly all of Gaza's 2.4 million residents have been displaced at least once during the war.

Within hours of the Hamas attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,211........

© Al Monitor