In brief
As winter rains hit Gaza, aid agencies are sounding alarms over the deteriorating conditions faced by more than a quarter of a million families in need of emergency shelter. Many are forced to live in makeshift tents that have become insufficient against the elements, raising fears of disease spread and loss of life. Calls for increased humanitarian aid, including tents and supplies, are being made amidst bureaucratic hurdles that prevent aid from reaching those in urgent need.
Aid agencies have reiterated calls for Israel to allow more tents and urgently needed supplies into Gaza after the first heavy winter rainfall, saying more than a quarter of a million families need emergency help with shelters.
We are going to lose lives this winter. Children, families will perish, says Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
With a majority of the population displaced by two years of a devastating war, most Gazans now live in tents - many of them makeshift. They have been clearing up after widespread flooding due to a winter storm that began on Friday.
There are fears that diseases could spread as rainwater has mixed with sewage water.
Fatima Hamdona, crying in the rain over the weekend, recounted how her children are already sick and her soaked tent has left them without food. Where do we go? There’s no shelter for us to go to now, she said.
The situation isn’t unique to Fatima; in Khan Younis, families report that their clothes and bedding have been ruined by flooding. With 260,000 families needing emergency shelter assistance, the pressure is mounting on aid organizations.
Despite the dire situation, NGOs claim they have only been able to send about 19,000 tents into Gaza since a recent ceasefire. Meanwhile, crucial supplies remain stuck at borders.
As winter looms, Egeland criticizes the bureaucratic hurdles preventing aid from reaching those who urgently need it. “They need a tent today; they don't need a promise of a beachfront structure in five years.”
