Tens of thousands of people sheltered on Gaza’s vulnerable Mediterranean coast face the harshness of winter, without adequate shelter or enough food and fuel. Temperatures are plummeting in the hard-hit territory and storms are destroying makeshift tents.
In recent weeks, bad weather has forced hundreds of people living in the Gaza coastal strip around al-Mawasi to evacuate their shelters, damaging kitchen utensils, clothing, food stocks and precious firewood. Al-Mawasi was designated a “humanitarian zone” by Israeli military offensives and is filled with people who have been displaced during 13 months of fighting, airstrikes and artillery bombardments.
Hisham al-Haddad, 30, explains that a sudden torrent of seawater rushed into his tent and those of his neighbors last week, catching them completely off guard. At the time of the storm, his family of eight had been living near Deir al Balah, in a part of the coast declared a humanitarian zone, since they fled the Israeli offensive against the southern city of Rafah in May. “We had no choice but to pitch our tent on the sand of the beach due to lack of space, but there were two rows of tents in front of ours, facing the sea. They were all swallowed by the sea completely during the storm and high tide. It was like a tsunami. “I grabbed my children and ran,” says al-Haddad. “We were all trying to save our lives. The waves swept away some people and children, but they were rescued. We were all screaming and asking for help. “I wanted to help others, but I had to save my life and that of my family.”
The UN and other humanitarian organizations have warned of the serious difficulties that the population will face during the winter months, when temperatures in Gaza can drop to 5ºC, with an average minimum temperature of 10ºC. More than two thirds of the buildings in the territory have been damaged and there are areas uninhabitable.
Last month, Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA), noted that Gazans had been forced to burn plastic trash as a last resort to keep warm. “Winter in Gaza means that people will not only die from airstrikes, disease or hunger. Winter in Gaza means more people will die shivering from the cold, especially the most vulnerable, such as the elderly. [y] the children,” Lazzarini published on X (formerly Twitter).
Humanitarian organizations, the UN and some governments have called for an improvement in the flow of aid to Gaza, especially to the north, where an estimated 60,000 to 75,000 people have been without humanitarian assistance for more than two months due to the blockade imposed by the Israeli army. in several neighborhoods.
Also through a message on platform humanitarian aid to Gaza through Kerem Shalom and other steps. He also noted that UNRWA has coordinated less than 10% of the aid that entered Gaza in November.
The month of October 2024 marked the worst month for humanitarian aid in Gaza since the conflict began thirteen months ago. According to COGAT, an average of 90 trucks a day entered in November, compared to 60 trucks a day in October.
“It’s so cold that we don’t have winter clothes to keep us warm, nor enough blankets. I used half of it to build the store. My children have two pieces of warm clothing, they put them on to keep warm, but it is not enough. We also don’t have firewood to light a fire and warm ourselves a little,” explains Fida Eid, a 26-year-old woman and mother of two children. Eid, displaced from Jabalia, a city located five kilometers north of Gaza besieged by Israel and the scene of fierce fighting, says that five close relatives have died in the conflict.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza was triggered after an attack by Hamas militants against southern Israel on October 7. More than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the cross-border attack that caught Israeli security services by surprise. Another 250 people were kidnapped. To date, according to Gazan health authorities, the Israeli offensive has caused more than 44,800 deaths and 106,300 injuries. The majority are civilians. Thousands more are missing.
No access to humanitarian aid
In recent weeks, food prices have skyrocketed and basic products are too expensive for much of the civilian population. A 25kg bag of flour now costs more than 114 euros, more than 10 times the price it had before the war broke out.
“We receive very little help from NGOs. The last time I received a care package was a month ago. As usual, it only contained canned food, so we relied on meals from soup kitchens. We queue for hours to get water. “This is our life,” says al-Haddad.
Sabreen al-Atout lives with her husband and six daughters in a makeshift tent in al-Mawasi. “Winter is approaching… we don’t have any proper shelter to protect us from the rain. We don’t have enough blankets, we don’t have winter clothes, and we have no way to stay warm with any type of heating,” he laments. Al-Atout’s 12-year-old daughter Rahaf was killed in a bombing in November last year, and her twin sister has serious injuries to the lower part of both legs. “He needs to leave Gaza for the rest of the treatment, but that is impossible, and with this freezing cold in winter, he suffers a lot from the impact of the wound, and we have no clothes or socks to warm his feet,” explains al-Atout.
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