Tents supplied to displaced Palestinians ‘inadequate for Gaza winter’ | Gaza

An assessment compiled by housing experts in the devastated region found that thousands of tents provided by China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to house displaced Palestinians in Gaza provided only limited protection from rain and wind.

The assessment will refute claims that Palestinians in Gaza are provided with adequate shelter. Severe storms in recent weeks have destroyed or damaged thousands of tents; It affected at least 235,000 people. According to UN estimates.

The assessment prepared by the Palestine Shelter Cluster, which coordinates the activities of approximately 700 non-governmental organizations in Palestine and is jointly chaired by the Red Cross and the UN, revealed that the newly delivered tents sheltering hundreds of thousands of people “will probably need to be replaced.”

“Material [of the Egyptian tents] “It tears easily because the stitching quality is low,” he reported. “The fabric is not waterproof. Other problems include small windows, poor structure, no flooring, the roof collecting water due to the design of the tent, and no mesh for the openings.”

While the tents from Saudi Arabia were criticized for being “poorly constructed, with light fabric that was not waterproof”, the tents donated by China were “too light” and not waterproof.

Those provided by Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations were judged to meet the requirements of the UN experts.

The findings, based on 9,000 responses to a survey on social media in November, observations from “partners on the ground” and “community feedback”, will raise new questions about the quality of direct aid to Gaza by individual countries favored by Israeli officials seeking to bypass the UN.

Only 20,000 of the 90,000 tents that have entered Gaza since an October ceasefire after two years of conflict have been covered by the UN or other major international NGOs, an aid official said.

Cogat, the Israeli defense ministry body that oversees aid to Gaza, said it was working to support “winter preparedness” in the region by authorizing the supply of more than 100 items. 25,000 tons It consists of tarpaulins and tents.

Palestinians and humanitarian officials in Gaza said tents sold on the open market by commercial contractors were inadequate and expensive for Gaza in winter.

“The tent we live in is worn out and rainwater is leaking inside,” said 30-year-old Linda Abu Halima, who lived in the coastal area of ​​Mawasi after her house in Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza, was destroyed. “We bought it with the help of someone, it was handmade from wood and tarpaulin. We cannot buy new tents because the prices are high and we did not get any help.”

Since the conflict was triggered by a surprise Hamas raid on Israel in October 2023, nearly the entire population of Gaza of 2.3 million has been displaced multiple times, leaving much of the area reduced to rubble.

Many people in Gaza believed that the ceasefire would allow them to begin rebuilding their homes. Instead, the division of territory and the ongoing humanitarian crisis have made this impossible. Few people have the resources to move, most basic items remain scarce, and basic services are almost non-existent.

The UN’s activities may be further restricted, as many NGOs serving in Gaza on behalf of the UN face bans under new Israeli laws that impose strict registration requirements.

Officials in Israel said: new system It aims to “streamline the humanitarian system so that aid and humanitarian platforms are not used and abused by Hamas.” Aid officials said the results would be “catastrophic”.

Hopes of rapid progress towards the second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire are fading. Analysts say neither Hamas, which controls the majority of Gaza’s population, nor Israel, which controls more than half the territory and all entry points, are willing to make immediate concessions. Both sides accuse each other of violating the ceasefire.

Hamas militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 250 people in their raids on Israel in 2023. Approximately 70,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the ensuing Israeli offensive. another one 414 Palestinians Palestinian officials said he had been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire.

“The only thing that has changed since the ceasefire started is the silence of the shelling and the end of the bloodshed; our daily lives continue almost the same, with the same pain,” said Abdullah Abdo, 25, who is originally from Gaza but now lives in a tent camp in Mawasi.

According to Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the conflict in Gaza, the second phase will include the complete disarmament of Hamas, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces, the deployment of an “international stabilization force” and the appointment of a technocratic administration to the region. The plan also calls for a “full” flow of aid.

Aid officials told the Guardian that efforts to strengthen flood defenses were hampered by Israeli restrictions on heavy equipment, construction materials and sandbags. Israeli officials said such machines could be used by Hamas for military purposes such as tunnel construction.

Jawaher Abd Rabbo, 25, lives with her husband and three young children in a single, rat-infested room with no windows or floors among the ruins of an apartment building in Gaza City’s Nasser district. Nothing remains of his own home, just a mile further east.

Rabbo and his family recently fled the makeshift shelter east of the Tuffah neighborhood, close to the new “yellow line” that has divided Gaza into areas controlled by Israel and Hamas since the October ceasefire.

“We left when we heard multiple explosions,” Rabbo said. “While my wife was in a wheelchair due to the injury she received in the war, I left all our clothes and belongings behind, took my two-month-old daughter in my arms, and held my two-year-old son’s hand.”

Rabbo said she and her husband tried to repair the room that is now their home by placing plastic sheets on the floor and where the walls once were.

Palestinian officials said 19 people died due to buildings collapsing after the recent heavy rains.

“During this storm, we did not have enough blankets or clothing to protect us from the cold,” said Rabbo. “The rainwater soaked everything. We only have one bed, which I share with my children. I know it is extremely dangerous to stay in a ruined building in the winter, but we have no choice.”