More tents and other shelter materials are urgently needed in Gaza.
Hundreds of thousands of people whose homes have been destroyed have no way of staying safe and warm amid fierce winter conditions with strong winds and rain.
With more than nine in ten homes in Gaza destroyed by bombing, more than 1.8million people are in need of emergency shelter and household items, according to the Palestinian Shelter Cluster. Much of the population is currently living in substandard tents or makeshift shelters, sometimes comprised of little more than old rice sacks sewn together to make a basic cover.
Among them is Abdul Rahman, 62, who has been displaced three times over the last 16 months and is currently living in a tent in Deir Al Balah after his home was destroyed.
He said: “I live in a tent... like a grave... As you see, me and my wife, my children, are all displaced, each in a different place. Tent life...there is no dirtier life than that, but we were forced to live this way [because of] the occupation.
“My house had three floors. They all went down into a 25-metre hole.”
Amid what the Palestinian Shelter Clusters calls a critical shortage of adequate shelter materials, multiple families are being forced to share a single tent, while others are seeking refuge in damaged buildings, exposing them to the danger of unexploded ordnance. The Israeli authorities have not yet permitted the entry of mobile homes into Gaza according to reports, despite this being a requirement of the ceasefire agreement.
Women and girls are particularly impacted by the lack of safe and private living spaces, which puts them at increased risk of gender-based violence, harassment and abuse.
The harsh winter weather is making the critical humanitarian situation worse: severe storms have destroyed hundreds of tents in the past weeks, according to UNRWA.
Amjad Al Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO), an umbrella organisation of 30 Palestinian NGOs and a partner of ActionAid Palestine, said: “After hundreds of thousands of people managed to return to their neighbourhoods in the north of Gaza strip to Gaza City, they couldn't manage to recognize their homes, which [were] destroyed. About 90% of the Jabalia and Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun homes were destroyed and became rubble. And in Gaza City, about 80% of the housing units were destroyed.
“There [is] a huge need for shelter items, such as tents and caravans, in order for people to have somewhere to stay and to protect them from the rain, cold weather and from the wind.”
The scale of destruction to essential infrastructure in Gaza is vast: only 51% of Gaza’s hospitals are operational or partially operational, while 85% of its water and sewage systems have been destroyed, according to the Palestinian Water Agency. Yet vital repair and reconstruction work, including on water and sanitation infrastructure, is being prevented by a lack of materials such as cement, pipes and spare parts, according to OCHA.
Amjad Al Shawa continued: “We have very limited capacity to deliver water to families due to the destruction of the water infrastructure, water pipes, water wells and the water desalination plants. The closure of roads makes [it] difficult to reach families who insist [on staying] in their neighborhoods over the rubble of their homes.
“The delay of the Israeli occupation to enter basic materials makes our efforts to shelter people very complicated...We [are continuing] our efforts in order to scale up and to provide shelter to people and to establish medical points in the different sites. [We need] more pressure and advocacy to enter the items needed into Gaza.”
ActionAid’s partners have been supporting displaced people as best they can, including by distributing blankets and plastic sheets for tents in Deir Al Balah and Khan Younis over the last few days, but more items are urgently needed.
Riham Jafari, advocacy and communications coordinator at ActionAid Palestine, said: “The urgent priority for aid in Gaza right now is tents and other shelter materials, with hundreds of thousands of people crammed into flimsy tents and makeshift shelters which offer little protection from the winter weather, or sheltering amongst the ruins of bombed out buildings. Cement, building materials, heavy equipment and more fuel are also desperately needed in order to move the rubble and make areas safe and habitable, and so that urgent work to repair water and sanitation infrastructure, electricity networks and hospitals can take place.
“We call for the entry of these items to be ramped up immediately so that essential reconstruction work can take place.”
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Jamil Sawalmeh, country director of ActionAid Palestine, and Riham Jafari, advocacy and communications coordinator at ActionAid Palestine, are currently in London and available for in-person interviews.
Please contact the press office to arrange at uk.media@actionaid.org or on +44 7753 973 486 to arrange.