“The place where I’m standing now was once the site of a water desalination unit that MECA installed. It used to provide clean water to about 2,500 people every single day — before everyone was displaced in March.

Today, I came back to see what’s left… and I found nothing but emptiness.

No voices, no children, no water — just silence and dust where life once breathed.

This is Khan Younis — the Al-Satar area.

It breaks my heart to see that homes have disappeared, and with them, the life that once filled this neighborhood.

People can’t return because there are no basic services left.

Yes, the municipality has reopened the main and side roads, but roads alone can’t bring life back.

People need spaces to set up their tents where their homes once stood, they need wells to get water for daily use, and they desperately need access to safe drinking water.

I can only hope — and pray — that life will soon return to this place that once was full of warmth, laughter, and hope.”

-Amal, MECA’s Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Director, writes from Khan Younis, Gaza