Portraits of Gaza residents

A toddler, a 12-year-old, a mother, a photojournalist. Their lives were ripped apart in one of the deadliest and most destructive wars of the 21st century.

Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, now in its fourth month, is often conveyed in stark numbers and historical comparisons: Some 27,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza health ministry. Nearly 2 million are displaced, and more than 60% of residential buildings have been damaged or destroyed in a territory smaller than the New York City borough of Manhattan.

Yet, the lives behind those statistics are often hidden from view. Internet and cellphone services are frequently cut; international reporters cannot enter Gaza except on escorted trips with the Israeli military; and dozens of Palestinian journalists have been killed in a military campaign prompted by the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.

Samar Abu Elouf, a photojournalist for The New York Times, spent weeks following a handful of Palestinians who seemed to have lost everything: a boy with charred limbs, a journalist who lost four of his children in an Israeli strike, an orphaned toddler who may never walk again.

Then the Times evacuated Abu Elouf and her family in December as the Israeli ground offensive extended across southern Gaza.

Since then, Gaza has spiraled toward famine. Some residents say they are eating grass and animal feed to survive.

Giant bombs fall near the last functioning hospitals. Torrential rains pound disease-ridden tent camps. Exhausted medics make harrowing choices.

Through it all, Abu Elouf has tried to stay in touch with the people she photographed, but some can no longer be reached.

Their stories, like that of Gaza itself, are still playing out.

Photojournalist Muhammad al-alul holds his surviving son, Adam, and comforts a niece, in Gaza in November. Al-ahul lost three of his other children in a strike near his home in Central Gaza. The familiy is now in Turkey, where al-alul’s wounded wife is being treated.

PHOTOS BY SAMAR ABU ELOUF — THE NEW YORK TIMES A 16-month-old girl named Melisya, who survived after her home was crushed by a devastating strike, with her aunt, Yasmine, at a hospital in the Gaza Strip in October.