Salwa Tibi recalls how she covered several miles on foot in southern Gaza, in a desperate search for blankets and sheets that might help keep her four children and other young relatives warm at night. <\/p>\n
\u201cI felt bad for the kids, they had nothing to keep them warm and we were dying from the cold at night,\u201d said Tibi, who works at the humanitarian agency CARE International. She is staying in a rented house with at least 20 relatives including eight children and babies \u2013 the youngest of whom is three months old. <\/p>\n
The kids, she said, \u201cwere screaming all day from hunger.\u201d <\/p>\n
Senior US\u00a0officials have warned Israel to minimize civilian casualties in the south, where it has now stepped up its military campaign\u00a0targeting Hamas,\u00a0after previously telling Gazans to flee there from the north of the strip. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf the situation stays this tragic, then Gaza is going to starve,\u201d said Tibi. <\/p>\n
Islam Saeed Muhammad Barakat did not have time to gather the belongings his family needs for winter when they fled their home in Gaza City. <\/p>\n
The average temperature in Gaza\u00a0falls to between 10\u00b0C and 20\u00b0C\u00a0(50F to 68F)\u00a0in\u00a0December, dipping a couple of degrees lower on average in January.\u00a0The rainy season\u00a0typically\u00a0lasts from November to February, with January\u00a0the wettest month.\u00a0One reporting station near the border of southern Gaza and Israel indicated\u00a0nearly twice\u00a0the amount of average rainfall to date, while other surrounding reporting stations to the north showed less rain than normal. <\/p>\n
Almost 1.9 million people, more than 85% of the enclave\u2019s total population, have\u00a0been displaced\u00a0since the beginning of the war, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). <\/p>\n
More than 1.1 million of those\u00a0are sheltering\u00a0in facilities in central and southern Gaza, including in\u00a0Khan Younis\u00a0and Rafah where strikes have been reported,\u00a0UNRWA said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had to take off the bag I was carrying and throw it away,\u201d said Hazem Saeed Al-Naizi, the director of an orphanage in Gaza City who was among those heading south. \u201cPeople did the same thing like\u00a0me, they started throwing their bags.\u201d <\/p>\n
Al-Naizi was forced to flee to Rafah with the 40 people under his care \u2013 most of whom are children and infants living\u00a0with disabilities. He recalled being too fatigued to hold the bag, crammed with baby milk, biscuits, dates, diapers, water\u00a0and clothing, at the same time as carrying one of the orphans, 8-year-old Ayas. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe road was filled with bags, which led to people falling to the ground when they were walking,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Civilians may not have expected their displacement to last into the winter months without access to their homes, said Rebecca Inglis, an intensive care doctor in Britain who regularly visits Gaza to teach\u00a0medical students. Some have resorted\u00a0to searching\u00a0under the rubble of destroyed buildings for blankets and other essential supplies. <\/p>\n
Shadi Bleha has no roof to protect himself from the worsening weather. Instead, he is sheltering in the courtyard of a school. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe try to play some games with my family and sing together \u2026 to make them happy, at least for a small time.\u201d <\/p>\n
Elsewhere, patches of land have turned into sprawling tent camps, where thousands of civilians are living in cramped conditions. Flash flooding caused by torrential rains spills rubbish and sewage into the streets, contaminating people\u2019s limited food and water supplies. <\/p>\n
Some displaced children in a tent camp in Deir Al-Balah, in southern Gaza, could be seen playing in the water following intense downpours on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are nine people living in this tent. Our tent is flooded with water, my siblings are freezing, and we don\u2019t know what to do. We want to go back to our homes and not drown,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), says it is \u201cfacilitating various humanitarian aid initiatives\u201d to help the civilian population in Gaza, including allowing in aid deliveries \u2013 subject to security checks \u2013 supplying water and facilitating the establishment of field hospitals. On Tuesday, four tankers of fuel and two tankers of cooking gas were allowed in, as well as 195 trucks of humanitarian aid, COGAT said. <\/p>\n
The price of food and water has surged as supplies diminish, leading to widespread hunger and dehydration.\u00a0The\u00a0World Food Programme\u00a0declared a \u201ccatastrophic hunger crisis\u201d in Gaza\u00a0on December 5. The relief organization said it was forced to shut down its last remaining bakery because it had no fuel or gas, adding that it ran 23 bakeries before the war. <\/p>\n
Reduced daylight hours mean people are less able to rely on solar power for generators needed to power water pumps. Tibi, the mother of four in Rafah, saves mineral water for the children and infants. The adults drink water sent through aid trucks, she said, which is \u201cnot 100% clean.\u201d <\/p>\n
Adults ration their meals so that children do not go hungry. \u201cI see people starving, literally starving,\u201d said Bleha, who eats one meal a day. <\/p>\n
Aid workers described surviving on a diet of canned beans, bread,\u00a0and hummus because they cannot cook their food without fuel.\u00a0Others have set up makeshift cooking facilities in clay ovens, and over open fires, burning solid fuels like plastic, wood, garbage\u00a0and cardboard instead of cooking with <\/strong>electricity or gas. Some use tin rocket stoves, where wood is burned in a vertical heat chamber to reduce smoke fumes, according to the\u00a0UN\u2019s children\u2019s agency. <\/p>\n Those relying on solid fuels to heat indoor spaces are exposed to potential carbon monoxide poisoning, said Ghalayini. Outside, street vendors are using burnable waste for fuel, which can release toxic fumes such as black carbon. Cars powered by cooking oil or corn oil release \u201chuge plumes of black smoke\u201d into the atmosphere, he added. <\/p>\n The price of automotive transport has\u00a0increased six-fold, according to Jamal Al Rozzi, executive director of the National Society for Rehabilitation, who has fled to Bani\u00a0Suhelia, in the south,\u00a0for his children\u2019s safety. The cost of moving goods in carts pulled by horses or donkeys has tripled, he added. <\/p>\n For those already struggling to stay safe, warm\u00a0and fed, illness poses an additional risk. <\/p>\n In crowded shelters that cannot meet\u00a0basic sanitation\u00a0and\u00a0hygiene\u00a0needs, diseases \u201cspread like\u00a0wildfire,\u201d said Inglis, the intensive care doctor. <\/p>\n She anticipates\u00a0an uptick in upper respiratory tract infections because coughs, colds and viruses spread more quickly when people are clustered\u00a0together without proper ventilation. Civilians will be exposed to other illnesses including diarrhea\u00a0and\u00a0hepatitis A,\u00a0as well as\u00a0body lice and scabies,\u00a0because they cannot wash properly, Inglis added. <\/p>\n Roughly 160,000 to 165,000 cases of diarrhea have been recorded among children under the age of five, a WHO official said Tuesday, describing the figure as \u201cmuch more\u201d than usual. More than 130,000 cases of respiratory tract infections and 35,000 cases of skin rashes have been recorded, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza said in a report Monday, as well as thousands of cases of chickenpox, lice and scabies. <\/p>\n A colleague in southern Gaza, Inglis said, had told her of treating people with wounds \u201cfull of maggots\u201d and elderly people suffering \u201cdehydration and exhaustion\u201d after fleeing from the north to the south. <\/p>\n Vulnerable populations, including malnourished children, pregnant and menstruating women, and those with disabilities, are more likely to have symptoms that are left untreated. Israel\u2019s complete siege and restrictions on aid entering Gaza have diminished drug supplies, leaving health workers unable to help many patients who are sick or treat those who have suffered injuries in the bombardment, increasing their risk of infection. <\/p>\n Barakat, in Khan Younis, said: \u201cI and many of my children got sick with several viruses that have spread recently, namely the flu and many colds, and other unknown but painful and contagious viruses.\u201d <\/p>\n Civilians with chronic illnesses including diabetes and high blood pressure are also more vulnerable to winter illnesses because the blockade has prevented access to treatment, said Inglis. <\/p>\n In Gaza, there are more than 2,000 cancer patients, 1,000 people with kidney disease, 50,000 people with cardiovascular disease and 60,000 diabetes patients, according to\u00a0WHO. Poorly controlled Type 2 diabetes can lead to complications including skin infections, heart attacks or strokes, Inglis said, adding that patients with treatable cancer are \u201cgoing to die.\u201d <\/p>\n The number of functioning hospitals along the strip has plummeted from 36 to 11, WHO\u00a0said. <\/p>\n \u201cThe entire system has been systematically destroyed in this conflict in such a way that it will take years to rebuild,\u201d said Inglis. <\/p>\n Al-Rozzi said Palestinians were in a state of \u201cfear, anxiety and pain,\u201d adding: \u201cThey feel worthless, and they have no clear view of tomorrow, or today.\u201d <\/p>\n Barakat called on the international community to protect Palestinian lives, in the hope that peace will return to Gaza. <\/p>\n \u201cEnough siege, enough starvation, enough killing, enough abuse, we have the right to live,\u201d he said. \u201cOur children have the right to play.\u201d <\/p>\n\n Salwa Tibi recalls how she covered several miles on foot in southern Gaza, in a desperate search for blankets and sheets that might help keep her four children and other young relatives warm at night. \u201cI felt bad for the kids, they had nothing to keep them warm and we were dying from the cold <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} Diseases \u2018spread like wildfire\u2019<\/h2>\n