Arabic version: عائلات على شاطئ غزة تواجه مخاطر خيام الشتاء

According to Al Jazeera, displaced families living in tents near al-Qarara port on Gaza’s coast are preparing for winter with limited protection from wind, rain and seawater. Anas al-Shami, 33, lives in a dilapidated beach tent with his family of six after displacement from Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis.

Al-Shami said overcrowding and high rental costs in displacement areas left his family unable to find safer land for a tent. He recalled seawater and rain flooding their shelter last winter, soaking bedding and belongings while his children lay in water. He said repeated exposure to cold, damp and water caused serious illness among his children.

Ibrahim Abu Tair, 47, is sharing a cramped tent on the shoreline with his seven children after his family was displaced from eastern Khan Younis. He said the shelter lacks basic necessities, winter clothing and dry mattresses. Strong winds and rising waves keep him awake, he said, following flooding last winter that forced the family to endure the cold outdoors.

Families have built makeshift barriers by filling damaged cooking pots with earth and stacking them beside tents. Mayasem Association, working with World Central Kitchen, is producing the pot barriers near the port. Three donated pots can be filled with soil and stacked to about 150 centimetres to help hold back incoming water.

Gaza’s Winter Emergency Committee has warned of worsening conditions, citing critical shortages of tents, caravans, construction materials and fuel. It reported about 200,000 dilapidated tents sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced people, with some 7,800 in hazardous locations including beaches, dry riverbeds and rainwater collection ponds. The committee also said about 2,000 cracked buildings risk collapse and called for urgent shelter, fuel, caravans and building materials.