Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin

A worker emerges from one of hundreds of smuggling tunnels that connect the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin

This Gazan university student works in a tunnel, hauling goods to earn money for tuition. Many workers put in 12-hour shifts six days a week—or more—in the cramped spaces. Gas explosions, electrocutions, and Israeli air strikes are common.

Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin

Members of the militant group Islamic Jihad patrol the border with Israel to prevent incursions by the Israel Defense Forces. The average Gazan family has six people, and with so few jobs to be had, disaffected young men are drawn to extremist groups.

Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin

A new tunnel owner, in white cap, watches his son descend into the well shaft to continue digging. Wealthy owners can afford mechanized winches, but this man, who saved for years to get a share of the tunnel trade, must rely on his family and a horse.

Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin

Lamb is a luxury most Gazans can afford only on important Muslim holidays. With many farms devastated by war, and with other land lying unproductive in areas restricted by Israel, livestock comes in by tunnel from Egypt.

Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin

Merchants and restaurateurs congregate at a tunnel that specializes in smuggling in fresh fish from Egypt, packed on ice in Styrofoam boxes. Israel’s naval blockade keeps Gazan fishermen close to shore, so seafood is always in demand.

Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin

Gaza City apartments rise beyond the broken gates of a waterfront restaurant. The beach once bustled with fishing boats and cafés, but the Israeli naval blockade, sewage, and lack of resources for rebuilding have taken their toll.

Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin

At Rafah’s hectic Saturday market, vendors sell everything from flavored water and vegetables to cotton candy. Many goods come through the tunnels from Egypt, but the plump strawberries on display in front of a Hamas billboard are homegrown.

Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin

Gazans fix a donkey cart for collecting mountains of rubble left in 2008-09 by Operation Cast Lead, a military campaign in Gaza launched by Israel, officially in response to ongoing rocket fire from the strip. Rubble is recycled into gravel for new construction.

Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin

The placard notes that Allah will reward those who are patient. The young men are Salafi jihadists with one or more of the radical Islamic splinter groups that call for armed struggle against non-Muslims. They gathered in support of the uprising in Syria.

Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin

Suraqa Qudaih, 18, was killed by a missile from an Israeli drone while returning home with two cousins, one of whom was also killed. He was a member of the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, a militant organization.

Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin

Twelve-year-old Khamis Abu Arab (at left) was playing outside when he found an undetonated shell. He brought it home, where it exploded in his face. A series of operations in an Israeli hospital removed shrapnel from his eyes but couldn’t restore his sight.

Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin

At a Bedouin wedding in Al Maslakh, a village south of Gaza City, 12-year-old flower girl Hassna Abu Wakid enters the procession to the groom’s house. Weddings are still festive public occasions that can last three days.

Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin

Israel’s naval blockade to stop smuggling of arms and other goods into the strip also restricts Gazans to within three nautical miles of shore. But the sea is one place where Gazans have an open horizon.