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Rain, falling temperatures and a lack of clean water are exacerbating already dire conditions for displaced Gazans.
By Hiba Yazbek
Reporting from Jerusalem
In the evening, amid heavy rain and falling temperatures, Heba and Ehab Ahmad hugged their two youngest children, relying on their body warmth and a thin blanket to keep them warm as water and gusty winds blew through the holes in their makeshift tent.
“We have nothing to keep us warm and dry,” said Heba Ahmad, 36. “We are living in conditions that I could have never in my entire life imagined were possible.”
The Ahmad family is among the 1.9 million Gazans who the United Nations says have been displaced since Israel began its relentless bombing campaign and expanded ground operation in retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.
They arrived in the community of Al-Mai in southern Gaza three weeks ago, just as winter was approaching. The seven relatives took refuge in a small, flimsy tent they built out of expensive nylon sheets and some wooden planks, Ehab said. Ahmad, 45 years old. They share it with 16 other family members, he added.
“It’s even a real tent,” he jokes. “Those who live in real tents are the bourgeoisie of Gaza. “
During the day, Ahmad said, he and his older children go out to fetch firewood and cardboard to keep a small fireplace burning, which they use for cooking and heating. I speak to you as the smoke from the chimney blinds me,” Mr. Ahmad said in a telephone interview on Sunday. In the background you can hear an uncontrollable cough. ” Smoke also damages our lungs,” he added.
The United Nations and other human rights teams have expressed growing concerns in recent days about the spread of water-borne diseases such as cholera and chronic diarrhoea in Gaza, due to a lack of clean water and poor conditions. unhygienic. According to UNICEF, children are the most severely affected by rising rates of infectious diseases.
Ms. Ahmad M. et’s only daughter and youngest daughter, Ms. Ahmad, Jana, 9, has been suffering from severe abdominal pains for about two weeks, most likely due to excessive dehydration, Mr. said. Ahmad. Ahmad. Il explained that he had not gone to take her to a hospital or clinic because the few medical centers that continue to function are absolutely dilapidated and difficult to access on foot.
“She’s screaming and all we can do is give her some rainwater,” Ahmad said.
It was hot when the Ahmads and their five children first fled their home in the northeastern city of Beit Hanoun at the start of the war. Like many others, Ahmad said, they didn’t expect to leave for so long and fled with only a few documents and the summer clothes on their backs.
“I used to go to second-hand markets to buy warm clothes,” Ahmad said, “but they sell them at incredible prices that I can’t afford. “
“For more than 23 days we have been looking for blankets and mattresses,” Ahmad said. “We sleep on a thin sheet and shape the sand as a kind of pillow to rest our heads. “
This past week, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, an international partnership of aid organizations, classified Gaza’s entire population as in crisis in terms of access to food.
Like many other displaced families, the Ahmads, who have moved four times since the start of the war, have struggled to find food and water. They eat whatever they can find, most commonly wild leafy greens, Ahmad said. Until now, no one had reached them. The distribution of aid has been confusing due to fuel shortages, ongoing airstrikes and a host of other logistical challenges.
However, the rainy weather has a silver lining: a brief break in the family’s struggle to find water.
They placed a bucket outside their tent to collect rainwater, which they used to cook and wash themselves and their clothes.
“It’s still infected water,” Ahmad said, “but we have no alternative. We have to adapt. “
Ameera Harouda contributed to this report from Doha, Qatar.
Hiba Yazbek works for The Times from Jerusalem, Israel and the occupied West Bank. Learn more about Hiba Yazbek
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