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MIDEAST: Gazans Brace for Cold, Bleak and Miserable Winter
By Mel Frykberg
EZBT ABBED RABBO, Nov 16 (IPS) - Tens of thousands of Gazans living in tents and damaged homes face a wet, cold
and miserable winter as Israel’s blockade of the coastal territory continues to
prevent the importation of building and reconstruction material.
During the last few weeks Gazans were given a brief reprieve from the
oncoming winter as an unseasonal snap of warmish, sunny weather held off
winter rain and plummeting temperatures.
But, during a tour of northern Gaza last week, the U.N. Humanitarian
Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, Maxwell Gaylard, and the
Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA) called on Israel to
open its border crossings immediately to avert a further deterioration in the
humanitarian situation on the ground.
"With winter rains and cold weather now imminent, the people of Gaza are
even more desperately in need of construction materials such as cement,
roofing tiles and glass to build and repair homes destroyed and damaged
during the Israeli military offensive of 2008/2009," said Gaylard.
During Israel’s intensive bombing campaign in December/January Gaza’s
infrastructure was heavily targeted leading to the destruction and damage of
thousands of homes.
"Gaza urgently requires 268,000 square metres of glass for windows and
67,000 square metres of glass for solar water heaters or enough glass to
cover more than 30 football pitches. More than 500 children are still living in
tents," Mike Bailey from Oxfam told IPS.
Damage caused to Gaza’s water, sanitation and electricity systems,
exacerbated by Israel’s crippling blockade which forbids the import of most
essential spare parts and fuel, has further limited the ability of aid agencies to
supply essential services.
The lack of concrete water storage tanks means that fresh water can only
enter water pipes when there is electricity to power water pumps. Backup
generators - which rely on fuel - are needed to ensure power cuts do not
lead to water shortages and pollution of water.
"The humanitarian situation is going to deteriorate if something doesn’t give,"
Gaylard told IPS during a tour of the Ezbt Abbed Rabbo area of the northern
Gaza strip.
"We are reaching out to the international community. We are appealing to the
member countries of the U.N. on a regular basis about this continuing
crisis… We are holding discussions with the U.N. General Assembly and the
U.N. Security Council. One would hope that the message would be getting
out after the Goldstone report," said Gaylard.
"We are continuing talks with the Israeli government but pressure must be
brought to bear on those responsible for keeping the border crossings
closed," Gaylard told IPS.
Fifty metres away from where the media gathered to hear the U.N.
coordinator address the escalating humanitarian crisis, dozens of Gazan
families were living the crisis first-hand.
Muhammad Zaid’s five-storey home - which took four years to build and was
home to 16 people, the youngest a one-year-old - was flattened during 15
days of intensive Israeli shelling at the beginning of the year, forcing the
family to flee.
For the first five months after the war Zaid and his family lived under the
caved-in bottom floor of the building. For the last five months the Zaids have
lived in a tent supplied by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Despite the recent unusually warm and dry weather, the heavens opened up
for one night last week and rainwater flooded their tent as the family
desperately tried to salvage belongings.
"We were awake the whole night scooping water out and trying to dig a small
ditch around the tent to prevent more water flooding in but it didn’t help. The
children were terrified and screaming. It was so cold," Zaid told IPS.
However, when the winter rains begin to flood his tent on a regular basis in
the near future Zaid, who is unemployed and in huge debt, will face the
additional problems of having only intermittent electricity, and no running
water.
"I have spent over three thousand dollars of borrowed money for a new
refrigerator and stove and some other basic appliances but we have no heater
and the electricity keeps cutting," said Zaid.
Several kilometres away, near the border with Israel, mother of eight
Taghreed Abu Amrayn, showed IPS her new "home", a tent attached to the
remains of her former three-storey house, as she jiggled 20-month old
Safedin on her hip.
"I’m not sure how we will cope with winter as heating and electricity are a big
problem and the children are always getting sick. I think the phosphorous
bombs that were dropped nearby may have affected them.
"Apart from the health issues we still live in fear on a daily basis as Israel
continues to bomb these areas," Amrayn told IPS.
Nearby the Abu Amrayns, Rifat Bakri, 28, and Wissam Amoud, 27, were using
improvisation to try and overcome the absence of construction material. They
had "rebuilt" their former garage and mechanical workshop with cardboard
boxes.
"We couldn’t just sit around, we needed to get back to work. These boxes
have provided a provisional garage for the short-term but when it rains in
winter they will become water-logged and I’m not sure what we will do then,"
Bakri told IPS.
"This abysmal situation can’t continue. People are desperate. Enough is
enough. It is time for the blockade to be ended and for humanity to return to
Gaza," Bailey told IPS.
(END/2009)
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