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By Wafaa Shurafa and Fatma Khaled | Related Press
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Winter is hitting the Gaza Strip and most of the almost 2 million Palestinians displaced by the devastating 14-month battle with Israel are struggling to guard themselves from the wind, chilly and rain.
There’s a scarcity of blankets and heat clothes, little wooden for fires, and the tents and patched-together tarps households live in have grown more and more threadbare after months of heavy use, in keeping with assist staff and residents.
Shadia Aiyada, who was displaced from the southern metropolis of Rafah to the coastal space of Muwasi, has just one blanket and a scorching water bottle to maintain her eight kids from shivering inside their fragile tent.
“We get scared each time we be taught from the climate forecast that wet and windy days are developing as a result of our tents are lifted with the wind. We concern that robust windy climate would knock out our tents at some point whereas we’re inside,” she mentioned.
With nighttime temperatures that may drop into the 40s (the mid-to-high single digits Celsius), Aiyada fears that her youngsters will get sick with out heat clothes.
Once they fled their residence, her kids solely had their summer season garments, she mentioned. They’ve been pressured to borrow some from relations and pals to maintain heat.
The United Nations warns of individuals residing in precarious makeshift shelters which may not survive the winter. Not less than 945,000 individuals want winterization provides, which have change into prohibitively costly in Gaza, the U.N. mentioned in an replace Tuesday. The U.N. additionally fears infectious illness, which spiked final winter, will climb once more amid rising malnutrition.
The U.N. Company for Palestinian Refugees, often called UNRWA, has been planning all 12 months for winter in Gaza, however the assist it was in a position to get into the territory is “not even near being sufficient for individuals,” mentioned Louise Wateridge, an company spokeswoman.
UNRWA distributed 6,000 tents over the previous 4 weeks in northern Gaza however was unable to get them to different components of the Strip, together with areas the place there was preventing. About 22,000 tents have been caught in Jordan and 600,000 blankets and 33 truckloads of mattresses have been sitting in Egypt because the summer season as a result of the company doesn’t have Israeli approval or a secure path to convey them into Gaza and since it needed to prioritize desperately wanted meals assist, Wateridge mentioned.
Most of the mattresses and blankets have since been looted or destroyed by the climate and rodents, she mentioned.
The Worldwide Rescue Committee is struggling to herald kids’s winter clothes as a result of there “are a whole lot of approvals to get from related authorities,” mentioned Dionne Wong, the group’s deputy director of applications for the occupied Palestinian territories.
“The power for Palestinians to organize for winter is actually very restricted,” Wong mentioned.
The Israeli authorities company chargeable for coordinating assist shipments into Gaza mentioned in a press release that Israel has labored for months with worldwide organizations to organize Gaza for the winter, together with facilitating the cargo of heaters, heat clothes, tents and blankets into the territory.
Greater than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed within the battle in Gaza, in keeping with the Gaza Well being Ministry. The ministry’s depend doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, however it has mentioned greater than half of the fatalities are girls and youngsters. The Israeli navy says it has killed greater than 17,000 militants, with out offering proof.
The battle was sparked by Hamas’ October 2023 assault on southern Israel, the place the militant group killed 1,200 individuals and took 250 hostages in Gaza.
Negotiators say Israel and Hamas are inching towards a ceasefire deal, which would come with a surge in assist into the territory.
For now, the winter clothes on the market in Gaza’s markets is way too costly for most individuals to afford, residents and assist staff mentioned.
Reda Abu Zarada, 50, who was displaced from northern Gaza along with her household, mentioned the adults sleep with the kids of their arms to maintain them heat inside their tent.
“Rats stroll on us at night time as a result of we don’t have doorways and tents are torn. The blankets don’t maintain us heat. We really feel frost popping out from the bottom. We get up freezing within the morning,” she mentioned. “I’m frightened of waking up at some point to seek out one of many kids frozen to demise.”
On Thursday night time, she fought by way of knee ache exacerbated by chilly climate to fry zucchini over a hearth fabricated from paper and cardboard scraps exterior their tent. She hoped the small meal would heat the kids earlier than mattress.
Omar Shabet, who’s displaced from Gaza Metropolis and staying along with his three kids, feared that lighting a hearth exterior his tent would make his household a goal for Israeli warplanes.
“We go inside our tents after sundown and don’t exit as a result of it is vitally chilly and it will get colder by midnight,” he mentioned. “My 7-year-old daughter nearly cries at night time due to how chilly she is.”
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