Scratching out a life in the ruins: A day in the life of a family in Gaza

It's morning in Khan Younis, and the Al-Zurai family wakes up in a tent pitched on the rubble of the cement house they once shared.

It's morning in Khan Younis, and the Al-Zurai family wakes up in a tent pitched on the rubble of the cement house they once shared. The tiles that used to be the floor of their home are loosely laid across the sandy ground, marking the space of what is now a makeshift outdoor kitchen.

“Today, God sends us cans, so we’re cooking them for the children,” Suad Al-Zurai, 57, said of the canned beans that she stirs in a simmering pot. It's the 558th day of the war, and the children, along with the adults, are hungry, covered in dust, haunted by death and facing another day of scraping together a life from the ruins of the Gaza Strip.

NBC News' crew on the ground spent a day with the Al-Zurai family, from early morning to sunset, to see how they, and thousands of families across the enclave, are living after the ceasefire broke, and Israel began a blockade in early March, barring the entry of food, water, medicine and other supplies into the enclave.

The Al-Zurai family in Gaza.NBC NewsThere are 16 members of the Al-Zurai family to share the single pot of beans, eight of them children. At least five more should be there with them, Suad says. One of her sons was killed along with two of her grandchildren, while another, Khaled Al-Zurai, has been missing for days after an explosion that killed one of his sons. Suad is now taking care of his wife, who has cancer, and their four surviving children. Her third son, Hamed Al-Zurai, and his four children also live with her. Other relatives are displaced to other parts of Gaza.

Suad's exhaustion is palpable as she stirs the pot under a blazing sun.