A report in an American newspaper stated that the winter weather crisis, rain, and shortage of tents and shelter materials have become part of the details of the war on Gaza.
The New York Times report noted that a severe shortage of tents and other shelter materials has left more than one million Palestinians in Gaza vulnerable to winter weather and disease, in addition to thousands of temporary homes that have been damaged or destroyed by recent rains.
For months, Israeli authorities have either blocked or restricted the entry of basic shelter materials, including tents, poles, tools and fabrics, despite a US-backed ceasefire that went into effect last month and obliges Israel to allow the flow of aid without restrictions.
But Israel has also classified some relief supplies, including tent poles, as “dual-use,” according to UN officials, implying claims that they could be reused to make weapons or other equipment.
Authorities also barred some aid organizations from bringing in tents, approving instead shelter materials from some donor countries, not all of which are waterproof or durable enough for winter conditions, according to Shayna Low of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a non-profit humanitarian organization that leads a coalition of organizations focused on shelter needs.
Meanwhile, Israeli restrictions – including the continued closure of the Rafah border crossing and the suspension of all but two aid corridors into Gaza – have slowed the pace of desperately needed repairs to damaged water and sanitation systems, which humanitarian workers warn are at risk of collapsing or flooding when another storm hits.
Recent heavy rains have caused a torrent of water, some of it contaminated, to flow through streets, camps, tents and partially destroyed homes, affecting more than 740,000 people, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which said the floodwaters “destroyed what little shelter and property remained for thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.”
Save the Children said in a statement: “Children in Gaza are sleeping on the bare ground without shelter, wearing shorts and tattered shirts soaked with sewage water after floodwaters inundated their tents during a weekend of heavy rain, putting them at risk of disease.”
The World Health Organization says that poor weather conditions and exposure to hazardous waste could lead to further suffering and widespread public health crises in Gaza, even as Palestinians try to restore some semblance of normalcy after two years of war.
This winter’s forecast includes above-average rainfall in Gaza, as well as strong winds and coastal waves in “an environment where sewage ponds are already overflowing, half a million tons of waste are piling up, and flimsy tents are pitched on bare, flood-prone land,” the World Health Organization wrote in a 39-page public health report published this month, citing climate analysis and weather forecasts from risk intelligence firm SARI Global.
At the crossings, Israeli authorities are working to reduce the priority of UN and other humanitarian aid shipments in favor of commercial imports, which “often consist of high-cost, low-nutritional-value goods, such as soft drinks and chocolate,” according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, citing the World Food Programme.
The United Nations announced on Saturday that Israeli forces had blocked three convoys of tents, food, and other supplies from entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south. According to the UN’s dashboard, which tracks aid coordinated and delivered with its partners in Gaza, shelter materials accounted for approximately 8% of all UN-supported aid that has entered the Strip since October 10.
A UN official familiar with the aid restrictions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss them with the media, said: “Many things remain the same since the ceasefire. We are still having difficulties in providing shelter assistance… because of these bureaucratic and administrative obstacles.”
Meanwhile, most of Gaza’s population is confined to areas highly exposed to climate risks and lacking functioning infrastructure, leading to the spread of infectious and respiratory diseases among the malnourished population, who are particularly vulnerable to infection, according to the World Health Organization.
This month, the United Nations and the Ministry of Health in Gaza launched the first round of a catch-up vaccination program for children who missed or were delayed their routine immunizations due to the war. The program began by vaccinating more than 13,000 children against diseases such as measles, mumps, tetanus, pertussis, polio, rotavirus, pneumonia, and others.
Health workers also screened about half of the patients for malnutrition: out of 6,827 children screened, 508 were found to be suffering from acute malnutrition, according to a statement from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The United Nations also reported this month that 9,200 new cases of acute malnutrition were reported among 110,000 children screened in October, a slight decrease from 11,700 in September and 14,400 in August.
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