Displaced people from Gaza who spend their days in makeshift tents or huddled around outdoor fires told CNN about the additional hardships winter has brought.
Temperatures have dropped to near zero in the eastern Mediterranean in recent days, and the region has witnessed several winter storms, bringing heavy rains to the region.
Ayman Jamal, who moved his family to Deir al-Balah in central Gaza from Shujaiya in the north, showed CNN inside his tent. Its walls consist of thin sheets of nylon attached to a primitive wooden structure. There are gaps between the covers where rain can enter. There is no ground layer to provide protection from the wet ground – just compacted sandy ground.
“It was very cold last night,” Jamal told CNN. “We couldn’t sleep, moving from one place to another inside the tent. The rain seemed to follow us wherever we went. My children were freezing.”
In another corner, 10 children, all under the age of 10, gathered around a pot filled with water heated by a simple coal fire. They were barefoot and raised their hands to the steam to keep warm.
“We are all sick and no one cares. “We don’t have any medicine,” said one of them. “We are so dirty. We haven’t showered in a long time. Please stop this for a while.”
United Nations estimates indicate that nearly 90% of Gaza’s population of more than two million people have been displaced by the war.
