People in Gaza have little optimism that 2024 will offer much comfort as they look back on a year that could hardly have delivered more searing agony following 12 weeks of a pulverizing Israeli onslaught.
People in Rafah, on Gaza's border with Egypt, which has become the main hub for Palestinians fleeing other sections of the enclave, were more concerned with finding shelter, food, and water on Sunday than with the new year.
"In 2024, I want to return to the wreckage of my home, pitch a tent, and live there," said Abu Abdullah al-Agha, a middle-aged Palestinian man whose house in Khan Younis was destroyed by an Israeli air strike and who lost a baby niece and nephew in the attack.
"I wish for our children to live in peace and security, to go back to school, back to university, and for workers to go back to work and find a source of income," he said.
Any prospect of a political resolution to the conflict and the fulfillment of the Palestinians' 75-year desire for self-determination appears further distant than ever.
People throng around temporary tents that have popped up on Rafah's streets and pavements and in vacant lots and fields. Early in the crisis, UN-run schools designated as shelters were quickly crowded with individuals whose homes had been destroyed.
People gaze back with loving melancholy at their abandoned houses and lifestyles from their tents constructed of basic plastic sheeting, where they have just the bare necessities such as blankets and cooking utensils.
"I hope that by 2024, everything will be fixed and life will return to normal," Muna al-Sawaf, 12, of Gaza City, said while playing with a cat in the ruins. "I want life to go back to normal, get dressed, rerun errands, and our homes to be rebuilt."