‘I used to like winter, but I don’t like it now’

After her husband was killed by the Israeli occupation forces in Beit Lahiya and the destruction of her house, Amal Abu Halima, 39, fled with her children to Gaza City. Passing through two Israeli military checkpoints inside Beit Lahiya where they were obliged to throw away what few clothes and little food they had, they then walked around 20 kilometres. Some of her children were barefoot.

“We arrived here,” she told me, “thinking that Gaza City would be safer and more secure than Beit Lahiya, but we were shocked by the relentless Israeli bombing. We still lived in fear, but had to cope.”

The displaced mother of seven faced a severe food shortage and lack of clean tap and drinking water, but this was not the main issue. “We got used to it during the past 14 months. The biggest problem is the tent and winter.”

Amal fled from Beit Lahiya 10 days ago. At least 30,000 people fled before her from the northern Gaza cities of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia. They arrived in Gaza City and occupied all the partially empty homes, shops, garages, stores, streets and shelters.

“We found a small empty space on the seating area of Al-Yarmouk Stadium, but we had nothing to use for a tent,” she explained. “We started looking for anything that could be used, and found small pieces of cloth. I sewed them together and made something resembling a tent.” The stadium is now the largest refugee tent camp in Gaza.

Although she and the children slept inside their tent, she told me that she knew that it would never protect them from rain or the cold. When rain was expected, she stayed awake.

“At the beginning of the night, it was light rain, on and off. There was nothing to worry about, but I could not sleep. I wished that it would not rain at all.”

She checked the tent for any and every weak spot. Her children were shivering with the cold. They didn’t have enough mattresses, blankets or even heavy clothes.

It was midnight and all of her children were sleeping when it started to rain.

“Just one minute, that’s all it took, and the rain started leaking everywhere inside the tent. I woke the children up, but I did not know what to do.” They stood up as best they could in the tent until it stopped raining.

READ: UNRWA says only 6% of Gaza’s food needs are being met

In the morning, Amal found out that the other displaced people around her had had the same miserable experience. “We could deal with this by standing up for a couple of hours, but what shall we do when the winter hits hard, in the cold and rain? I used to like winter, but I don’t like it now.”

Amal and her family were not the worst-affected displaced persons that I have met. Compared with others, they are relatively fortunate, as they have a space and a tent of sorts.

Mother and grandmother Aisha Darabe is 63. I met her in front of the main gate of the stadium. She has nowhere except a spot near the rubble of a nearby government compound destroyed by the Israeli occupation forces earlier during the genocide.

“The Israeli occupation forces killed my son, my daughter and my grandson,” she explained. “I fled with my wounded husband, my children and my now orphan grandchildren. This was the only place we could find.”

Aisha and what remains of her family have no tent, mattresses, blankets or winter clothes.

“We have been trying to sleep with no shelter or warmth for six days. When it rained tonight, I sent the children to the families of my acquaintances who live in better places in the refugee tent camp.”

Bad as her situation is, Aisha is more fortunate than the displaced family of Suhaila, 49, the mother of 11 children. Her husband was killed in a refugee shelter in Beit Hanoun. She has a disabled daughter, who she needs to carry on her back when they move from one place to another.

“We have a tent, but it is on the edge of the playground where the stream of running rainwater drains away,” she said. “In the middle of the rain spell, rainwater flooded our tent and all of our mattresses and blankets were wet. Everything was damaged. We had to move.”

Her main problem, Suhaila told me, is that she has no place to protect her disabled daughter properly. “I was weeping all the time when it was raining. I did not know what to do as there is no place to go.”

Ghassan Abu Riyalah is 41 and the father of six children. His wife is very sick. “Nothing is good to protect my children. Despite covering my decaying tent with a new plastic sheet, rainwater is still leaking inside.” What’s the solution? I asked. “The best solution is for the Israelis to withdraw from our city, end of the genocide and let us return to our homes.”

That, I’m afraid, is easier said than done.

READ: Heavy rains add to plight of displaced civilians in Gaza amid Israeli war

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.