The Civil Defense explained that its teams are dealing with dozens of damaged tents in the displaced persons camps, while the government media office said that the arrival of winter has “exacerbated the humanitarian tragedy” for thousands of families whose tents have become uninhabitable, as it was estimated last September that 93% of the tents in the sector (125,000 out of 135,000) were damaged by bombing or natural factors.
With the Israeli blockade continuing and the entry of shelter materials being prevented, displaced people are facing harsh conditions including a lack of basic services and deteriorating infrastructure, while the damage to tens of thousands of tents during two years of war is exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.
On Monday, the Gaza Center for Human Rights issued an urgent appeal to the international community to provide tents, shelter, and winter clothing for hundreds of thousands of displaced people living in dilapidated tents.
The center warned that 74% of the existing tents are uninhabitable, while only 23% of winter shelter needs have been met, leaving about 945,000 people without adequate protection from the cold and rain. The center called for a shift to using caravans as a safer solution, along with the immediate commencement of an urgent reconstruction plan.
Thousands of tons of waste have piled up
In a related context, the Union of Gaza Municipalities warned of a health and environmental catastrophe as a result of the accumulation of about 700,000 tons of waste in random dumps, due to Israel preventing municipalities from accessing central dumps and preventing the entry of fuel and necessary machinery.
Alaa al-Batata, the union's vice president, said that municipalities are facing an "impossible equation" due to fuel shortages and the destruction of machinery and equipment during the war, which has led to their inability to provide even the minimum services despite a month having passed since the ceasefire.
Al-Batata pointed out that the fuel crisis is the most serious, and that the amount of diesel reaching municipalities is very limited and insufficient to operate services for even a few days. He explained that 5,000 municipal employees have been working for more than 735 days without pay, while more than 200 of them have been killed in the line of duty.
As the water crisis continues, Al-Batata said that Israel destroyed more than 700 wells, or about 85% of the sector’s wells, which led to a decrease in the per capita share of water from 90 liters per day before the war to only 10-15 liters currently, in addition to the pollution of groundwater due to the collapse of sewage networks, about two million linear meters of which were destroyed.
He pointed out that 70 million tons of rubble still cover large areas of the sector, hiding thousands of bodies under the rubble, amid the absence of the necessary equipment to remove it, forcing residents to use primitive means to reach the bodies of their relatives.
The Union of Municipalities confirmed that the total losses in the services and municipalities sector during the two years of war are estimated at about $6 billion, warning that the continued prevention of the entry of machinery and fuel threatens a complete collapse of basic services in the sector.
On October 10, a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel came into effect, ending a war of extermination that Israel began on October 7, 2023, and which lasted for two years, leaving more than 69,000 Palestinian martyrs and more than 170,000 wounded, and massive destruction that affected 90% of the civilian infrastructure, with initial losses estimated at $70 billion.