In the shadows of Gaza’s ruins, an entire generation is slowly vanishing, not under the bombs, but in the quiet cruelty of hunger, illness, and displacement. For thousands of elderly Palestinians, survival has become a distant memory, replaced by endless suffering under the weight of war and neglect.

“I left my medicines behind,” says 75-year-old Mu’eenah Badra, now sheltering in a tent in Gaza City. “I don’t know if our home still stands. I can’t go back, and I won’t send my sons. I won’t let them die for a few pills.” Like many in Gaza, Badra once lived with manageable conditions, diabetes and high blood pressure, but now finds herself trapped in a warzone where medical care no longer exists.

As Israel’s war on Gaza grinds into its 21st month, the elderly are among the most invisible victims. Repeatedly displaced, living without shelter, food, or medicine, many are too weak to flee and too proud to complain. Their bodies shrink, their dignity erodes, but they continue, quietly resisting death in the only way they can: by enduring.

Human rights groups report that nearly 70% of Gaza’s elderly suffer from chronic illnesses, but access to treatment has all but collapsed. Some die from untreated ailments, others from hunger. Khalil Shahada watches his 85-year-old father waste away in front of him. “He hasn’t had any medication for two months. He can’t even eat now. I give him what little I have and go hungry myself.”

In a war where every life is endangered, the elderly carry a double burden: age and abandonment. Their deaths often go uncounted, no headlines, no outrage, only silence. Yet they are not numbers; they are the memory of a people, fading in plain sight.