RAFAH, Gaza Strip: Cold winter rains lashed war-battered Gaza on Wednesday (Dec 13), compounding the suffering of Palestinians forced from their homes and now huddling in flooded tents.
At a tent camp in Rafah, located on sandy terrain strewn with rubbish, people were trying to recover from a horrible night, carrying buckets of sand to cover puddles inside or just outside their tents, and hanging up soggy clothes.
Some families have proper tents, but others are making do with tarpaulins or thin, see-through plastic made to protect goods, not provide shelter for people. Many tents have no ground sheets, so people spent the night huddling on wet sand.
“It is torn and water poured on us. We were drenched,” said Ramadan Mohadad, a middle-aged man who was trying to fix his family’s shelter fashioned from strips of plywood and a thin plastic sheet.
Mohadad’s white T-shirt with stripes had large wet patches around the collar and on both shoulders.
“We tried as much as we could to protect ourselves so water would not get through but rain got in … This plastic does not protect people sleeping under it,” he said.
Rips were visible in other families’ plastic shelters, and some showed puddles inside. One family had placed a cement block at the entrance to act as a sort of dam, as well as smaller bricks inside that looked like stepping stones.
Source: CNA
