First Autumn Rain in Gaza – UNRWA Warns ‘Plastic and Fabric’ Not Enough Protection

Cold weather worsens sufferings of Palestinian refugees in Rafah. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

“As autumn begins, plastic and fabric are not enough to protect people against the rain and the cold.”

With the first heavy rain of the season in Gaza, UNRWA has warned that plastic and fabric “are not enough” to protect the displaced.

In a video shared on X by the UN relief agency on Sunday, rain is seen lashing makeshift tents in an overcrowded camp.

“Water runs through an overcrowded camp and floods makeshift tents where forcibly displaced families live,” UNRWA said. “As autumn begins, plastic and fabric are not enough to protect people against the rain and the cold.”

First heavy rain of the season in #Gaza today.

Water runs through an overcrowded camp and floods makeshift tents where forcibly displaced families live.

As autumn begins, plastic and fabric are not enough to protect people against the rain and the cold.#CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/x6eKjjumVY

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) September 22, 2024

Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s Director of Communications told Reuters that “With rain and temperatures dropping, people are likely to fall ill especially children who are most vulnerable to colds and flu.”

She also reportedly advised that more shelters and supplies were needed to help people cope with the coming winter.

‘Logistical Constraints’

According to UNRWA’s latest Situation Report, its humanitarian partners “are unable to import enough materials to provide sufficient protection from wind, rain, or flooding.”

“With logistical constraints and depleted stocks, few partners have any items to support households with emergency shelter and other essential items,” the report added.

With hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in an increasingly small portion of land in #Gaza, trash keeps piling up

This is a landfill site in Khan Younis. Waste is everywhere@UNRWA & partners work to dispose of it, but the war & access restrictions pose severe challenges pic.twitter.com/Jyo5bgYocL

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) September 22, 2024

In addition, “trash keeps piling up” and “waste is everywhere,” UNRWA stressed.

The agency and its partners “work to dispose of it, but the war & access restrictions pose severe challenges.”

According to the UN, at least 1.9 million people (or nine in ten people) across the Gaza Strip are internally displaced, including people who have been repeatedly displaced (some, up to ten times or more).

Ongoing Genocide

Israel continues to defy a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, and has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.

‘Unprecedented Crimes’ – Israeli Airstrike on School Kills Scores, Including Children, Fetus

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 41,455 Palestinians have, to date, been killed, and 95,878 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.

Millions Displaced

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

‘One Meal Every Other Day’ – Aid Agencies Say Israel Blocking 83% of Gaza Food Aid

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.

(The Palestine Chronicle)