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The winter has compounded the continuing suffering of the Gaza population, particularly the wounded, children and the elderly, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced within the Palestinian territory by Israel’s genocidal war desperately trying to survive on what little humanitarian aid Israel allows.
Nine-year-old Assad al-Madhna lost his left hand when Israeli gunfire hit a group of children playing in al-Zuwayda in central Gaza. The same attack also injured his leg.
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Today, as winter envelopes the besieged enclave, Assad’s pain increases as the metal rods and pins holding his leg in place stiffen in the cold, making each step slower and agonizing.
“I can’t play with other children because in winter my legs and hands hurt a lot,” he told Al Jazeera.
“I haven’t received any prosthesis, I have difficulty changing and going to the toilet in this cold is a real challenge,” he says, adding: “Without my parents, I can’t do it. At night, the intense cold becomes unbearable.”
The truce between Israel and Hamas since October 10 is fragile, a ceasefire in name only, according to Palestinians and rights groups, after two years of destructive war.
Despite the truce, Palestinians living in overcrowded camps – often in damaged tents and surrounded by mud – still face harsh humanitarian conditions, trying to survive with few or no resources, making the lives of the most vulnerable even more difficult.
“No heating at all”
Eighteen-year-old Waed Murad survived an attack that wiped out his entire family – seven loved ones in one fell swoop.
She now lives with a potentially life-altering injury, and when temperatures drop, her nerve pain intensifies, sleep eludes her, and what little recovery she had is threatened.
“I can’t warm up because of the intense cold, with the metal bars and pins always freezing,” she told Al Jazeera.
“I live in a tent with no heating at all. Every time I hear the wind I feel the pain getting worse, because the cold affects the metal fasteners even more.”
In the enclave, nighttime temperatures have fluctuated between eight and 12 degrees Celsius (46 and 53 degrees Fahrenheit) in recent days.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to United Nations data.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO network in Gaza.
Of more than 300,000 tents requested to shelter displaced people, “we only received 60,000,” Shawa told the AFP news agency, highlighting Israeli restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid to the territory.
Israel criticized for banning NGOs
At the same time, the international community condemned Israel’s recent announcement of a suspension of the operations of several international non-governmental organizations in the occupied Palestinian territory.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he deeply concerned and requested that the measure be reversed.
“This announcement adds to previous restrictions that have already delayed the entry into Gaza of essential supplies of food, medical care, hygiene and shelter. »
“This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the secretary-general, said in a statement.
Several countries in the Middle East and Asia have called on Israel to allow the “immediate, full and unhindered” delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip as winter storms batter bombed Palestinian enclave.
In a statement released Friday, the foreign ministers of Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia warned that “deteriorating” conditions in Gaza had left nearly 1.9 million displaced Palestinians particularly vulnerable.
“Flooded camps, damaged tents, collapsing damaged buildings, and exposure to cold temperatures coupled with malnutrition have significantly increased risks to civilian lives,” the statement said.
Earlier this month, Gaza experienced a similar period of heavy rain and cold.
The bad weather caused at least 18 deaths due to the collapse of war-damaged buildings or exposure to the cold, according to Gaza’s civil defense agency.
On December 18, the UN humanitarian office said 17 buildings collapsed in the storm, while 42,000 tents and makeshift shelters were fully or partially damaged.
