As dawn breaks, Gazans flock to the Corniche in an effort to get rid of the tension caused by the coronavirus, the new enemy of the impoverished and besieged sector.

Walid Al-Louh, 40, walks along the Corniche with his daughter, wearing olive-colored shorts, a shirt and a hat.

"Our Gaza community suffers from severe pressure," says Al-Louh, an employee at a German institution in Gaza. "Many people go out to walk on the seafront to relieve themselves and escape from the difficult environment, and also to build a healthy body."

"Before Corona, I used to walk and watch dozens of people walking, but now I see hundreds walking daily, and in the morning and evening on the beach," the man adds, jogging after taking a short break.

On the same corniche, Hanadi al-Akawi, 32, walks daily five kilometers with her husband Ashraf to "get rid of psychological pressure" and start a new day "positively" before returning to take care of her home matters.

"Walking at dawn reflects positively on my family," the young woman says with a smile. "My life becomes better and my home is more beautiful."

The sector, which is a narrow coastal enclave, has been under tight Israeli occupation siege by air, land and sea for nearly fourteen years.

The Gaza Strip communicates with the world through the Israeli occupation Erez crossing and the Rafah crossing with Egypt, which open sporadically. 

Since the announcement of the first local infections with the virus in August, Hamas imposed a comprehensive closure on residents before gradually opening the strip after two months. 

The closure is the first such closure experienced by the people of the Gaza Strip since the curfew imposed by the Israeli occupation army during the First Intifada from 1987 to 1993.

- An invisible enemy -

Umm Al-Abed Eid, 39, accompanied by her husband Fouad, who works as director of the Arab Bank in the Gaza Strip, walks five kilometers to "breathe fresh air."

The couple, who set off at 5 am, rest at a wooden table in a small cafe on the Corniche to sip coffee before returning home at seven.

Umm Al-Abed says, "Walking is beneficial psychologically, healthily and physically. We are freed from the negative energy caused by the virus and the wars before it."

Her husband interrupts her, adding, "We spend the most beautiful two hours walking together, getting rid of the negative energy and recovering from the effects of the siege and war."

Since 2008, the Gaza Strip has fought three bloody wars with Israel.

Psychologist Samir Zaqout says, "The coronavirus is for them a new, invisible enemy, and they cannot fight it in the shadow of an almost collapsed health system."

- Three prisons -

Zaqout describes the situation in the Gaza Strip as "very difficult."

He adds, "Some people do not want to adhere to wearing the muzzle, because they do not want to hold their breath in three prisons, which are the home, the muzzle and the suffocated sector."

He considers that walking "is an opportunity to reduce psychological problems and express their feelings, before returning to the cell (home)."

For the psychologist, "People are under great stress, like a pressure cooker (a cooking pot), and had it not been for the Israelis to relieve the pressure from time to time, the situation would have exploded."

From time to time, Israel partially eases restrictions on the movement of goods through the only commercial crossing, Kerem Shalom.

Zaqout explains how "divorce cases have increased and the number of patients in psychiatric clinics has doubled, with no hope for a better future, all because of the virus."

The Gaza Strip suffers from a high rate of depression and mental disorders in the region, according to the Gaza Mental Health Program.

In August, the Palestinian NGO Network and the Council of Palestinian Human Rights Organizations launched a call in which it said that the percentage of families suffering from insecurity in the Gaza Strip "is about 62.2 percent, which is dangerously increasing due to measures to combat the virus."

According to a poll conducted by the British Islamic Relief Organization this year, 80 percent of the 2,000 workers surveyed in Gaza reported having "mental problems" due to the epidemic, which reduced their already limited income.

On the outskirts of the city’s corniche, athletics coach Akram al-Mamlouk, 47, is about to finish two hours of walking.

Al-Mamlouk says, "The sea is the only outlet for Gaza to triumph over depression due to the repercussions of Corona and the effects of the Israeli wars."

Marwan al-Assar, who wears a yellow raincoat, holds his bicycle.

Every day, Al-Assar walks about ten kilometers from his home in the Nuseirat camp to the fishermen's port in the west of the Strip, before going down to swim in the sea for half an hour, and then heading to his shop.

The 60s clothing merchant describes himself as a "hero." "I have been walking for 35 years and today I see people imitate me, the culture of walking grows larger, it is food for the soul, walking is life," he says.