Gazans still live in shanty houses year after Israeli war

Palestinian families are afraid of what the future holds after their houses were destroyed last year in Israel’s summer offensive against the Gaza Strip.

Since the war ended in August 2014, the Abu Shabab family have lived in a shanty house in a Bedouin estate called Beit Hanoun in the north of the strip.

The family has attempted to get financial compensation to rebuild their house on numerous occasions, after it was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike.

They failed, and have now had to build their new shanty house from sheets of tin which cannot protect them from stray animals, reptiles or insects.

The stifling summer heat saddles the family with yet more misery.

They describe their house as “unsuitable for human living”. It consists of just one narrow room and a water and electricity supply that cuts out constantly.

Rania Abu Shabab sayd she is in the final stages of her pregnancy and has constant pains in her stomach that are not helped by the unhealthy conditions she is living in.

Samira Khaled, her mother-in-law, told the Anadolu Agency: “We endure this hard life but we also suffer from marginalisation by the government.”

Akram Hamid, 45, was forced to build his new house from tin and palm branches. It overlooks a hole which is between 4-5 metres deep located where his house stood before it was struck by Israeli fighter jets.

“Rockets targeted our house and destroyed it almost completely. It caused a deep hole that we cannot fill,” he told Anadolu Agency.

Hamid’s house consists of two rooms separated by a sheet of tin. All eight members of his family live in these cramped conditions.

A year after Israel’s war on the besieged enclave, Hamid worries about continuing his life inside his makeshift house.

Israel launched a war against the Gaza Strip on 7 July 2014. It resulted in the death of more than 2,260 Palestinians and injured another 11,000, according the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Around 28,366 homes were also damaged in the war, according to official statistics.