Imagine life as a boy called Salman waking up this morning in an apartment on the Gaza StripThe smaller of two Palestinian territories, home to two million people. It is located on the Mediterranean coast, surrounded by Israel and Egypt. .

He is woken by noise from the neighbours. With two million people in an area 25 miles long and six miles wide, this is one of the most densely populated places on Earth. Gaza City, where Salman lives, has 50% more people per square mile than London. But at least he is not one of the 600,000 refugees living in camps.¹

He knows better than to expect a hot breakfast: the family only gets three hours of electricity a day. Amazingly, though, they can drink water safely from the tap, unlike 95% of people in Gaza, who have to go to a well for clean water.²

He says goodbye to his grandmother. Yesterday she went to one of the 22 health centres run by the UNUnited Nations. An intergovernmental organisation based in New York that aims to maintain international peace and security., and was told that she needed an operation in an Israeli hospital. But Gaza is surrounded by walls and fences controlled by the IsraeliFrom Israel, a country in the Middle East. Just over 70% of its population is Jewish, while 20% is Arab. army, so for that she needs an emergency pass - and a third of applications for one are turned down.³

There is a drone hovering overhead and a horse and cart hurrying down the street as Salman sets off for school. He does not see many old people as he makes his way along dusty roads past the ruins of bombed buildings. Gaza has one of the world's youngest populations, with 65% of people aged under 25. But with youth unemployment at 70%, few of them are heading for work.⁴

Salman's school - one of 275 run by the UN - has so many pupils that half of them have to be taught in the morning and half in the afternoon. The teachers do their best, and are proud that the teenage literacy rate is 99%.⁵ Today, though, the school is packed with people seeking shelter, reckoning that it is a place the Israeli army is unlikely to shell.

He and his friends go to play on the beach when classes are over. They long to swim, but their parents have warned them not to: there is too much waste going into the sea from Gaza's inadequate sewage system.

Salman tries to get his homework done before dark. He knows that if it spills into the evening, he will probably have to do it by torchlight or candlelight. And if there is electricity, he would rather use it to watch TV.

There is fish for supper: a rare treat. Although Gaza is on the MediterraneanA sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean. It has the shores of Europe on one and the shores of north Africa on the other, as well as shoreline in Asia. , Israel only allows fishermen to operate up to 15 nautical miles from the shore. Much of the family's food used to come from a cousin's farm, but that was lost when a one-mile buffer zone was created along the border to hinder HamasA militant Palestinian organisation, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007. It is listed as a terrorist organisation in the UK. rocket attacks. Now, like half the people in Gaza, they rely on food boxes from the UN.

After supper, Salman helps to settle his younger brother and sister down for the night. He reads to them and tells them that the explosions in the background are just fireworks. He does not want them to be among the 50% of children in Gaza who suffer from psychological trauma.⁶

Salman is an imagined person - but all the details in this story are based on fact.

Yes: People in Gaza cannot rely on even the most basic facilities and live in terror of attack. Doctors there have warned of a mental health "epidemicA widespread disease or infection." in the Gaza strip.

No: Humans are extraordinarily resilient and able to adapt to challenging conditions. Many people in Gaza would rather stay there than say goodbye to their home and friends and family.

Or... However bad it is now, it is going to be far worse as a result of Hamas's attack. There have already been many casualties from retaliatoryIn response to previous attacks. strikes, and supplies from outside have been cut off.