Palestinians in Gaza resort to digging holes for shelter

“Death is difficult, but what is even more difficult is to make a grave for your family and yourself with your own hands,” Tayseer Obeid, a displaced Palestinian man in Deir al-Balah, said to The New Arab. 

The 41-year-old father of eight decided to dig a large hole, two meters deep and four meters wide, as shelter for his ten-member family after he could not get a tent. 

“For 15 months, we have been fleeing death from one place to another in the hope of protecting our children, but every time we lose more of our loved ones and relatives, even during their displacement, so all areas of the Gaza Strip have become cemeteries for us,” he remarked to TNA. 

“So, why don’t we make our own graves? Either to protect us from the cold or to bury us in them if the Israeli army bombs the place where we live,” he added. 

Since 7 October 2023, the Israeli army has continued to wage a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip under the pretext of responding to an attack carried out by the Hamas-led Palestinian factions on Israeli towns adjacent to the coastal enclave. The Israeli army has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians and injured more than 110,000, according to official statistics issued by the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Moreover, the Israeli army has destroyed approximately 80 per cent of residential buildings in the Gaza Strip.

About 2 million Palestinians have been displaced, most of whom live in temporary tents set up in areas that Israel claims are “safe”, according to official data issued by international and local organisations.

Making matters worse for the Palestinians is that the Israeli army is deliberately targeting of tents of the displaced, which has led to the deaths of hundreds, some of whom were burned in front of the cameras and the world.

Digging a shelter and grave

“All of this did not help us with the world; they look at us and watch our death and do nothing […] We were left alone in this war, so I did not want to wait for help from anyone, so I decided to dig a hole for my family and me, either we all live, or we all die,” Obaid remarked.

To implement his idea, Obaid chose clay land in one of the refugee camps in Deir al-Balah and began digging with primitive tools such as a shovel and a jack. The digging process took three days. After that, he built a roof from the remains of wood he obtained from his relatives and neighbours and covered it with nylon to prevent rainwater from entering it.

“Although I was terrified while digging it as it would turn into a mass grave for us, I had no other choice […] Currently, I live in it with my young children,” he said. 

“Every night, I bid them farewell, and I ask God to keep us all alive or that we all die because I do not want one of us to suffer for the other,” he added. 

In an attempt to protect his family from the rain, Obeid filled old flour bags with sand and stacked them at the entrance. He noted that he hopes to provide better protection from Israeli airstrikes for his family, who fled the fighting in northern Gaza, but he fears the shelter will not withstand a nearby airstrike. 

“If there is an explosion around us and the soil falls, instead of being a shelter for me, it will become a grave for me,” he said.

In Gaza, the displaced are forced to use whatever is available to improvise temporary shelters amid disastrous health conditions because Israel is tightening a ruthless siege on the Gaza Strip that prevents the entry of most humanitarian aid, tents, and necessities of life, which exacerbates the local population’s suffering.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said in a recent statement that about 945,000 Palestinians face the threat of a harsh winter due to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Strip.

UNRWA said that the displaced’s basic needs have not been adequately met, with only about 23 per cent of their needs for protection from rain and cold being met.

However, the UNRWA noted it continues to distribute tents and plastic sheets as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza becomes more complex. 

“The international community must urgently support the affected population in meeting its needs,” UNRWA stressed.