The winter has made a life of relentless suffering worse for the people of Gaza, particularly for the wounded, children and elderly, with hundreds of thousands in the Palestinian territory displaced by Israel’s genocidal war desperately trying to survive on the scant humanitarian aid Israel is allowing in.
Nine-year-old Assad al-Madhna lost his left hand when Israeli fire hit a group of children playing in al-Zuwayda in central Gaza. The same attack also wounded him in the leg.
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Now, as winter envelops the besieged enclave, Assad’s pain increases as the metal rods and pins holding his leg in place stiffen in the cold, making every step slower and agonising.
“I can’t play with other children as in winter, my legs and hands hurt a lot,” he told Al Jazeera.
“I haven’t received any prosthetic, struggle to change my clothes, and going to the toilet in this cold is a real challenge,” he said, adding: “Without my parents, I can’t manage it. At night, the severe cold becomes unbearable.”
A truce between Israel and Hamas since October 10 has been fragile, a ceasefire in name only, according to Palestinians and rights groups, after two years of destructive war.
Despite the truce, Palestinians in crowded camps – often in damaged tents and surrounded by mud – still face severe humanitarian conditions, trying to survive with few or no resources, making life the hardest for the most vulnerable.
‘No heating at all’
Eighteen-year-old Waed Murad survived an attack that wiped out her entire family – seven relatives in one strike.
She now lives with a life-altering injury, and when the temperatures drop, her nerve pain intensifies, sleep slips away, and the little recovery she had is threatened.
“I can’t keep myself warm because of the severe cold with the metal bars and pins always freezing,” she told Al Jazeera.
“I am living in a tent with no heating at all. Every time I hear the wind, I feel the pain will get worse, as the cold will affect the metal fixation devices even more.”
In the enclave, temperatures at night have ranged between eight and 12 degrees Celsius (46 and 53 degrees Fahrenheit) in recent days.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to United Nations data.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
Of more than 300,000 tents requested to shelter displaced people, “we have received only 60,000,” Shawa told the AFP news agency, pointing to Israeli restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid into the territory.
Israel slammed for banning NGOs
Meanwhile, the international community has condemned Israel’s recent announcement of a suspension of the operations of several international nongovernmental organisations in the occupied Palestinian territory.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was deeply concerned and called for the measure to be reversed.
“This announcement comes on top of earlier restrictions that have already delayed critical food, medical, hygiene and shelter supplies from entering Gaza.”
“This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the secretary-general, said in a statement.
Several countries in the Middle East and Asia called on Israel to allow “immediate, full, and unhindered” deliveries of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip as winter storms lash the bombarded Palestinian enclave.
In a statement on Friday, the foreign ministers of Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkiye, Pakistan and Indonesia warned that “deteriorating” conditions in Gaza had left nearly 1.9 million displaced Palestinians particularly vulnerable.
“Flooded camps, damaged tents, the collapse of damaged buildings, and exposure to cold temperatures coupled with malnutrition, have significantly heightened risks to civilian lives,” the statement read.
Earlier this month, Gaza experienced a similar spell of heavy rain and cold.
The weather caused at least 18 deaths due to the collapse of war-damaged buildings or exposure to cold, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.
On December 18, the UN’s humanitarian office said 17 buildings collapsed during the storm, while 42,000 tents and makeshift shelters were fully or partially damaged.