BBCThe beaches of Gaza are no longer a day trip. Tens of thousands of people now have to live on the coast, forced to leave their homes during the war.
In recent days they have come under a new type of attack: from the winter sea hitting their fragile habitats.
“There is nothing left in the tent: mattresses, blankets, bread, everything was taken.” The sea took it,” said Mohammed al-Halabi, in Deir al-Balah.
“We rescued a two-month-old child who was dragged into the sea.”
Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people now have homes and nine out of ten of those living in shelters are in tents, the UN said.
As the temperatures dropped, more people were getting sick. There were floods of rainwater and sewage.
“My children’s feet, their heads—everything is cold,” Shaima Issa told the BBC in Khan Younis. “My daughter has a fever because of the cold. We actually live on the streets, surrounded by cloth. Everyone here is sick and coughing.”
“If it rains on us, we are drenched,” added his neighbor, Salwa Abu Nimer, crying. “Heavy rain floods us, and we don’t have waterproof protection. Water enters the tent, we put on our wet clothes.
“There is no flour, no food, no drink, no place to hide,” he continued. “What kind of life am I living? I am going to the ends of the earth just to feed my children.”
Although the situation is worse in the north, UN officials are warning of severe shortages of medicine, food, shelter and fuel across Gaza, describing the situation as “catastrophic.”
There are long lines for handouts to the poor in the central and southern parts of Gaza where most of the population lives.
Over the following days, our local photographers captured hundreds of people crowding outside bakeries where there was very little bread. Sometimes, there is a crush as those who are waiting move forward.
“I need bread. I have pain, diabetes, and high blood pressure. I can’t push through crowds; I am afraid that I will breathe and die,” said Hanan al-Shamali, who is from Deir al-Balah but originally from northern Gaza.
“I need bread to be able to feed the orphans I care for.” Every morning, I come here. In the end, do I get bread or not? Sometimes I get it, but most of the time I don’t.”
At the Kerem Shalom crossing, Israel’s main crossing point to Gaza, last week journalists were shown trucks transporting goods that had undergone security checks.
Aid flows into the Palestinian territory remain at their lowest level in the past year. Israel blames aid agencies for distribution problems.
“Unfortunately, we still see that there is a huge backlog of aid that needs to reach the distribution capacity of international organizations, as the aid of 800 trucks around me proves,” said Shimon Freedman, spokesperson for the organization. Cogat, part of the Israeli army controls the crossing.
But inside Gaza, aid workers say armed groups were looting imported goods they were brought through Kerem Shalom amid increasing lawlessness. This has now led the main UN agency working in the area, UNRWA, to stop using this route for deliveries.
The overall picture, said Antoine Renard, the regional head of the UN’s World Food Programme, is that of Palestinians who face a “daily struggle for survival”.
“The levels of hunger, destruction and devastation we are seeing now in Gaza are worse than ever. People are no longer able to cope,” Mr Renard said.
Amidst the destruction of Gaza, the war is not over. Just expect more suffering, as the cold weather sets in.
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