Voices from Gaza: Coping strategies during the war on the Gaza Strip- A qualitative study

Introduction

The Gaza Strip is facing unprecedented devastation, with widespread destruction of infrastructure, mass displacement, and a collapse of essential services amid ongoing war and genocide. In this context of profound trauma and humanitarian crisis. This study aims to raise the voice of innocent Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip under the current genocide and underline the coping strategies and mechanisms they have developed.

Methods

This qualitative study draws on daily personal communications conducted between October 2023 and April 2025 with displaced civilians, family members, healthcare workers, and friends in Gaza. Testimonies were gathered via mobile and social media platforms.

Results

Findings reveal a range of coping strategies, including community solidarity, religious and spiritual resilience, creative expression, informal psychosocial care for children, and peer support among healthcare workers. Caregiving and faith-based practices were framed by informants as forms of both emotional survival and political resistance. Healthcare workers, despite profound personal losses, continued to deliver critical medical and emotional support, embodying the Palestinian ethos of sumud (steadfastness). Education, storytelling, future-oriented conversations, and international solidarity also emerged as key resources sustaining emotional endurance.

Discussion

The study highlights how coping strategies in Gaza are deeply rooted in cultural values, collective identity, and moral resistance. Resilience is expressed not only through personal adaptation but through acts that assert dignity, humanity, and hope in the face of dehumanization. These findings underscore the need for trauma research and humanitarian responses that are context-sensitive, culturally embedded, and attuned to the lived experiences of civilians under genocide.