Its unemployment rate was one of the highest in the world. And yet, despite seemingly insurmountable odds, glimmers of hope and normality have persisted within this conflict-riven area. Dateline spoke to three current and former residents about what life was like inside the Gaza Strip. Their accounts tell of a place defined by paradox: a territory flanked by the glittering Mediterranean Sea on one side and barbed wire on the other; a culture of hospitality, warmth, and benevolence that is regularly fractured by the sound of gunshots, fighter planes, and bombs; a people who are desperate for peace, and yet improbably accustomed to war.
