Spreads misery for displaced Palestinians

Palestinians in Gaza continue to suffer from hunger, disease, and bitter cold temperatures as Israel’s campaign of genocide continues

News Desk, The Cradle, NOV 26, 2024

More than 10,000 tents in Al-Mawasi camp in Gaza were blown away by strong winds and rain overnight on 25 November, forcing displaced civilians to relocate to areas far from the beach in very difficult and harsh conditions, WAFA news agency reported.

The National interviewed multiple people affected by the flooding and rain in the alleged safe zone on the Gaza coast.

“The sea was dragging children, but we were able to rescue them,” said Khaled Idris, a displaced Palestinian in Mawasi. “What happened to us yesterday is a humanitarian catastrophe.”

“My family and I set up our tent along the Khan Yunis shore,” explained Sobhi Shaheen, a displaced Gazan.

“But it flooded twice this year – first 10 days ago and again today. We moved to a tent with my sister’s family in Al-Mawasi, but the situation there is also dire. The water has turned the sand into mud, making it impossible to move, and the freezing cold is unbearable.”

The National added that many displaced families are relying on scraps of material for shelter, as the price of tents and the plastic sheets used to make them has surged.

Heavy rain has flooded the tents of displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, Gaza.

Gaza’s Government Media Office says about 10,000 tents either washed away or were damaged due to the storm. pic.twitter.com/cIgBdhIf1J

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) November 25, 2024

Mohammed Mushtaha, who was displaced twice, first from Shujaiya in Gaza City and then from Rafah, explained, “Our tents flooded, and the waves swept everything away. Many people lost their tents. We fled in fear of drowning. The situation was tragic, especially for children, women, and the elderly.”

“Our lives are so hard, and thinking about it is devastating,” he added. “It’s unbearable when your child tells you, ‘Dad, I’m cold,’ and you can’t do anything, or when he says, ‘I’m hungry,’ and you can’t feed him.”

Bashar Murad, the Director of Al-Quds Hospital, told WAFA that 40 percent of children in the south of Gaza are malnourished. He says that Israeli occupation authorities are preventing the entry of relief aid.

“In Gaza, it is estimated that 1.9 million people [nine in 10] are displaced, the majority in improvised tents unable to withstand the stormy wind,” Jonathan Crickx of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) told The National.

The spread of disease is also becoming a major problem, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) warned.

“Harsh winter weather is compounded by heavy rain and rising sea levels, which cause sewage pile-ups and disease,” UNRWA said on X.

Dr Murad warned that displaced civilians are suffering from various respiratory illnesses, especially the elderly and children, due to the lack of warm clothes, heating devices, and blankets as cold winter temperatures set in.

Earlier this week, Egypt’s permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Osama Abdel Khalek, warned that Israel is seeking to make Gaza uninhabitable and forcibly displace Palestinians from their ancestors’ lands.

Since the start of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023, Israeli forces have killed over 44,000 people, the majority women and children. Israeli bombing has displaced almost the entire population of Gaza and destroyed large swathes of the besieged enclave, including residential neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, mosques, churches, farmland, graveyards, and water and electrical infrastructure.