Severe weather in Gaza hits vulnerable and wounded most in Israel’s war

With hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by Israel’s genocidal war desperately surviving on the sparse humanitarian aid Israel allows in, the people of Gaza have endured a life of constant suffering, particularly for the wounded, children, and elderly.

When Israeli fire struck a group of children playing in al-Zuwayda in central Gaza, Assad al-Madhna, 9, the boy lost his left hand. He also suffered leg injuries in the same attack.

As the besieged enclave is enveloped in winter, Assad’s pain worsens as his leg’s metal rods and pins become cold, making each step more painful and painful.

He told Al Jazeera, “I can’t play with other kids because it hurts a lot in the winter.”

Without my parents, I can’t use the restroom because I haven’t had a prosthetic, struggle to change my clothes, and have a cold is a real challenge,” he said. The severe cold becomes intolerable at night.

Palestinians and human rights organizations believe that a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been fragile since October 10 and is only known as a ceasefire, despite two years of bloody battle.

Despite the truce, Palestinians who live in crowded camps, which are frequently huddled up in tents and surrounded by mud, still face difficult humanitarian conditions and struggle to survive without any or few resources.

No heating at all, exactly.

Waed Murad, 18, survived a tragic accident that left seven relatives and wiped out her entire family.

She now has a life-altering injury, and when the weather gets cold, her nerve pain gets worse, her sleep gets worse, and her recovery is in jeopardy.

She told Al Jazeera, “I can’t keep myself warm because the metal bars and pins are always freezing.”

“I don’t have any heating in my tent.” I can feel the pain worsen as the wind makes the metal fixation devices even more ill-tempered.

In recent days, the enclave’s nighttime temperatures have fluctuated between eight and twelve degrees Celsius (46 and 53 degrees Fahrenheit).

Almost 80% of the Gaza Strip’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed by the war, according to UN data.

According to Amjad Shawa, the director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza, about 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents have lost their homes.

We have only received 60, 000 of the more than 300, 000 tents that were requested to house displaced people, Shawa told the AFP news agency. The Israeli government has imposed restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid into the area.

Israel criticized for outlawing NGOs.

In the meantime, Israel’s recent announcement to suspend the activities of a number of international nongovernmental organizations in the occupied Palestinian territory has been condemned by the international community.

Antonio Guterres, the UN’s secretary-general, expressed his deep concern and demanded that the action be withdrawn.

“This announcement comes in addition to previous restrictions that have already prevented essential food, medicine, hygiene, and shelter supplies from entering Gaza,” according to the statement.

According to a statement from the secretary-general’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, “This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians.”

As the Gaza Strip is being stricken by winter storms, several Middle Eastern and Asian nations demanded that Israel allow “immediate, full, and unhinged” deliveries of humanitarian aid to the region.

The “deteriorating” conditions in Gaza had made nearly 1.9 million Palestinians especially vulnerable, according to a statement released on Friday by the foreign ministers of Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkiye, Pakistan, and Indonesia.

The statement read, “Flooded camps, damaged tents, the collapse of damaged buildings, exposed to cold temperatures, combined with malnutrition, have significantly increased risks to civilian lives.”

Gaza experienced a similar period of heavy rain and cold earlier this month.

According to Gaza’s civil defense agency, at least 18 deaths were brought on by the weather, which was responsible for the collapse of damaged buildings or the exposure to cold.

Source: Aljazeera