DaysofPal – The line between shelter and trash is blurred in the al-Taawun camp, which is located in the center of Gaza City between Yarmouk Stadium and al-Sahaba Street. The stench reaches guests before the tents are visible.
After being displaced by Israel’s genocide in Gaza, 765 families have erected makeshift tents directly beside and on top of a vast solid-waste dump. Surrounded by piles of rotting garbage, nearly 4,000 people struggle daily against disease, vermin, and the psychological toll of life in extreme filth.
Fayez al-Jadi, a father displaced 12 times since the war began, said the conditions are eroding their sense of dignity.
“The rats eat the tents from underneath,” he told Al Jazeera. “They walk on our faces while we sleep. My daughter is 18 months old. A rat ran over her face. Every day she suffers from gastroenteritis, vomiting, diarrhea, or malnutrition.”
Al-Jadi said his request is simple: a small patch of clean land, no more than 40 to 50 meters, where his family can live safely. “We want to live like human beings,” he said.
The lack of sanitation has triggered widespread skin infections throughout the camp. Without running water or a functioning sewage system, scabies has spread rapidly. Children and elderly residents are particularly vulnerable.
Six-month-old Fares Jamal Sobh cries through the night, unable to rest. His mother gestures toward the red rashes covering his body.
“He doesn’t sleep because of the itching,” she said. “We wake up and find cockroaches and mosquitoes on him. We try medicines, but nothing works when you live on trash.”
Um Hamza, a grandmother caring for an extended family that includes her blind husband and a son with asthma, said the scale of suffering has stripped away any sense of embarrassment.
“We no longer feel ashamed to say my daughter is covered in scabies,” she said. “We’ve used five or six bottles of ointment, but it makes no difference.”
In al-Taawun camp, survival has become a daily test of endurance. Families who once had homes now face illness, infestation, and the constant reminder that their displacement has left them with little more than tents pitched on refuse.
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