Forcibly displaced in Gaza left in the open, facing hunger, cold

Thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip have been forced into refugee camps that lack the most basic amenities, suffering from hunger and risk facing the upcoming winter months out in the open.

Youssef Muhanna was forced to the south of the Gaza Strip, along with his paralysed wife and six children, after their house in the northern Strip was destroyed and he was wounded, like tens of thousands of Palestinians.

“My wife is sick, and my daughter and I were injured when a neighbouring house was bombed and our house was destroyed. We have been besieged for 25 days,” he said, adding, “this is painful death. We were under bombardment every second. The shells did not stop and belts of fire surrounded us. We were afraid that the remains of the house would fall on us due to the intensity of the bombing and the shaking.”

Muhanna left his home in the Jabalia refugee camp and was hoping to reach the city of Rafah on the border with Egypt, but his arduous journey stopped at the entrance to the city of Khan Yunis after he spent eight hours walking 25 kilometres.

“My trip from Jabalia cost me 500 shekels [$130]. I no longer have money to reach Rafah,” he said, explaining that he had to pay to ride “donkey carts, a car, and a truck,” each time for a very short distance; because most drivers do not travel long distances due to a lack of fuel.

“I pushed my wife on her wheelchair during the journey. She has been suffering from low blood pressure and lupus erythematosus for 14 years, and this causes osteoporosis, and with the lack of medicine, this will expose her to a painful death.”

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About half of the houses in the besieged Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged, while more than 1.5 million people have been forcibly displaced, according to the United Nations.

In three days, about 200,000 people fled from north to south of the Gaza Strip, stretching the limited services available in this region.

Umm Yaqoub Abu Jarad, 42, said: “My children have fallen ill… I cannot find even a loaf of bread for them. Where can I get food for them? I have been trying since 6am to find a loaf of bread for them.”

The UN says bread has become difficult to source because the only flour mill in the Gaza Strip is no longer operational due to the lack of electricity and fuel while the price of a bag of flour (50 kilogrammes) increased from 40 shekels to at least 150 shekels.

Umm Yaqoub’s 47-year-old husband Atef said: “I came here with my children from Shuja’iyya on foot. The situation is catastrophic. I am a father responsible for a family, and I do not have a single shekel to buy food for my children.”

“They bring us one meal of rice for every seven people. I pretend to eat with my family, so I eat a spoonful of rice, and I tell them that I am full, so they can eat,” he said, adding that “there is no water… A day here is equivalent to a year, and we cannot move due to the extreme fatigue caused by walking.”