As winter grips the Middle East, thousands in Gaza are struggling to cope with the severe cold after thousands of homes were destroyed or damaged in the summer’s war with Israel.
Crew currently working around the clock to help Gaza residents currently homeless or without sufficient resources are under-equipped and lack the tools they and man-power they need to cope with the situation.
The New York Times reports:
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The storm has wrought death and misery among the most vulnerable, with high winds, heavy rain and snowfall across a region where snow is rare.
Aid workers in Lebanon and Jordan scrambled to distribute thousands of blankets, clothes, heaters and other supplies to Syrian refugees and others living in tents and makeshift shelters.
In Gaza, hundreds of Palestinians had to evacuate flooded homes in the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, according to Ma’an, an independent news agency. Seven people were injured on Thursday by roof collapses in the area, and two more were hurt when high winds toppled a water tank into their home.
Scores of families in the destroyed village of Khuza’a packed sandbags around the leaky caravans where they have been living for months as they wait for stalled reconstruction efforts to resume.
Raed al-Dahshan, the director of civil defense operations in Gaza, said his crews were working “around the clock,” but lacked the equipment and fuel required to respond to the emergency.
“I can say we don’t even have any infrastructure — the latest war destroyed everything,” Mr. Dahshan said in an interview. “The world gets happy when rain falls. But in Gaza, rain means misery for people and more humanitarian crises.”
Sean Adl-Tabatabai
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