Gaza’s displaced struggle as storm destroys makeshift shelters

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A powerful storm has battered Gaza displacement camps, flooding makeshift shelters, destroying tents, and leaving thousands of displaced families exposed to freezing temperatures and worsening humanitarian conditions.

Floodwaters swallowed hundreds of fragile tents, while howling winds ripped others from the ground, leaving families with nothing but open sky above them.

In the overcrowded refugee camps, home to more than 1.5 million displaced people, despair lingers as heavily as the bitter cold that grips the land.

With no protection from the relentless rain and biting wind, families huddled together in the open, shivering through a night that offered neither warmth nor relief.

The few tattered remnants of their shelters stood no chance against the raging storm, leaving them completely exposed, defenceless against nature’s fury.

For those who attempted to return to the ruins of northern Gaza, survival remains just as brutal. The storm has laid bare the devastation, exposing families to the wreckage of their former homes as they struggle to rebuild their lives from the rubble.

They face not only the punishing wind and rain but also hunger that gnaws at their stomachs. Food is scarce, heating materials are nonexistent, and the bitter cold shows no mercy.

Abu Mohammed al-Arabid, a Palestinian man displaced from Jabalia, described the horror of the storm to The New Arab.

“We woke up to the wind screaming through the camp. Rain poured through the tent, soaking everything inside. Within moments, it all collapsed on us. My children cried, their small bodies shaking from the cold, but we had nowhere to go.”

Umm Ahmed, a displaced woman from northern Gaza, clutched a soaked, tattered blanket as she spoke.

“These are not homes. They are just pieces of cloth strung together, barely keeping out the wind. And now, even those are gone,” the 52-year-old mother of four told TNA.

The conditions are no better in southern Gaza, where many have fled in search of safety.

Mahmoud Al-Attar, a displaced man sheltering in Mawasi Khan Younis, described the camps as “unbearable, overcrowded, suffocating, unlivable”.

He had hoped life in the south would spare his family the suffering of the north, where even basic necessities are nonexistent.

Umm Khaled, a mother of five, pointed to the mud pools that surrounded her makeshift shelter.

“We tried to build a tent over the ruins of our home. But when the storm hit, the wind tore it apart. Now, our blankets are soaked, our children’s clothes are drenched, and the cold is relentless. How much more must we endure?”

With temperatures dropping and no fuel available, families burn scraps of wood and plastic, desperately trying to stay warm. The acrid smoke stings their eyes and lungs, but it is their only defence against the creeping frost.

Hospitals, already pushed to the brink of collapse, are seeing a surge in respiratory illnesses among children. Premature babies, deprived of warmth and medical care, struggle to survive in overburdened, barely functional health facilities.

Despite the 19 January ceasefire allowing limited aid deliveries, relief efforts remain inadequate.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) warns of an impending catastrophe as severe fuel shortages threaten to shut down hospitals and cut off the last remaining sources of warmth and light.

“The continued Israeli blockade chokes the flow of lifesaving supplies, leaving Gaza’s displaced to endure an existence that defies humanity,” the IRC said in a press statement.

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