DaysofPal- Hundreds of displaced families sheltering along the coastline of Gaza City are facing worsening conditions as winter storms return, exposing them to heavy rain, strong winds, and advancing sea waves amid a severe shortage of safe shelter.
Along the western shore of the city, families who lost their homes during the Israeli genocidal war have erected fragile tents near the sea, leaving them highly vulnerable to harsh weather.
As a rain-bearing low-pressure system sweeps through the area, many fear flooding and the collapse of their makeshift shelters.
Heya Khader, whose home in the Zarka neighborhood of northern Gaza was destroyed, said her family has been living in a tent pitched close to the shoreline.
Watching waves crash nearby, she expressed growing concern for her children as storms intensified.
She said the tent offers little protection against violent winds or rising seawater, adding that it has effectively become her family’s permanent home.
Meteorological conditions across the Gaza Strip have deteriorated in recent days, with a cold air mass bringing heavy rainfall and forecasts warning of further worsening weather.
The storms have compounded the suffering of displaced residents living in worn and improvised tents across the territory.
Khader said her family attempted to prepare for the latest storm using limited resources, building a makeshift barrier from sandbags and digging a small drainage channel to prevent flooding.
She recalled enduring multiple previous storms on the coast, each leaving the tent submerged, blankets and mattresses soaked, and the family struggling for days to dry their belongings before the next storm arrived.
Life along the shoreline, she said, is marked by constant fear. Families closely monitor their children, worried that they could be swept away by water during the night.
Despite reinforcing tent stakes, sealing holes in plastic coverings, and strengthening barriers, Khader said survival ultimately depends on hope.
She noted that during earlier storms, many tents were washed away as the sea advanced inland, surprising families who had pitched their shelters farther from the water during calmer months.
Similar scenes are unfolding along Gaza’s coast, where torn tents strain against strong winds and families watch anxiously as waves creep closer with each storm.
Across the Strip, displaced residents are enduring bitter cold and heavy rain inside shelters that lack even the most necessities.
Nearby, displaced resident Eid Al-Hessi was seen digging a trench more than a meter deep around his tent to divert rainwater.
He said previous storms had flooded his shelter with rainwater and seawater, forcing him to send his children to stay with relatives out of fear for their safety.
Al-Hessi said he had no alternative location to set up his tent, leaving the beach as his only refuge.
As another storm approaches, he has covered the shelter with additional plastic sheets in the hope that they will hold, even temporarily.
Still, he said his family lives in constant fear, noting that even if rain can be kept out, the encroaching sea remains an ever-present threat.
With winter still in its early stages, displaced families along Gaza’s coastline warn that their suffering is far from over, fearing that harsher storms in the coming months could bring even greater devastation.
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