DaysofPal – As winter rapidly approaches, Palestinians in Gaza are scrambling to secure shelter for their families after Israel’s destruction of hundreds of thousands of homes.
Across the Strip, displaced families are salvaging wood, metal scraps, and torn fabric from the rubble, using traditional techniques to build fragile shelters that may barely withstand the coming cold.
More than 300,000 homes have been leveled during Israel’s two-year war on Gaza, leaving nearly two million people exposed to the elements. The entry of new tents and winter supplies remains blocked, worsening an already dire humanitarian crisis.
Official figures show that 93% of existing tents are now worn out and uninhabitable. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), sufficient winter shelter materials are stockpiled in warehouses to support one million people. Still, they are barred from entering Gaza by Israeli restrictions.
In overcrowded camps across the enclave, families endure harsh conditions with little access to food, medicine, or clean water. Parents are desperately trying to patch together makeshift tents from tattered cloth and broken plastic sheets that offer no protection from the rain or wind.
“We fear not the rain, but drowning,” one displaced resident said, describing how water floods through the camp’s thin shelters each time it rains.
Engineer Alaa El-Din Al-Batta, Mayor of Khan Younis and Vice President of the Union of Municipalities in Gaza, warned of a “looming humanitarian catastrophe” as temperatures drop.
He explained that “a single tent lasts no more than a year, and most of those in use today have been standing for over two years without replacement.” Despite international pledges of aid, the latest phase of the ceasefire has not allowed the entry of any tents or repair materials.
Two years after the start of Israel’s war, Gaza’s destruction remains near total. The Government Media Office reports that 90% of the infrastructure has been destroyed, leaving 68,527 Palestinians dead and more than 170,000 wounded, most of them women and children. The United Nations estimates the cost of reconstruction at around $70 billion, yet for now, survival, not rebuilding, is Gaza’s immediate struggle as winter closes in.
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