Palestinians struggle to provide food, shelter for children

GAZA — Mohammed Saad, a displaced Palestinian man, finally found a shelter for his eight-member family in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, more than 70 days after the outbreak of the Palestine-Israel conflict on Oct 7.

The 59-year-old father of six used to be a well-off businessman, until Israeli attacks destroyed his home in Gaza City. After being forced to relocate southward, he started to take his family from one refugee shelter to another in Rafah.

"I took nothing except some cash when we moved south, and the amount can only afford daily necessities like food and water," he said.

"We had once sheltered in a UNRWA center in Deir al-Balah, but the Israeli army ordered us to evacuate and then we went to Khan Younis until we received another evacuation order. That's how we ended up in Rafah," he said.

Currently, his family lives in a temporary tent established in the western part of Rafah and they have to share toilets with other families.

"I have to wait in long queues to get food, water, cooking gas, or any other things. Sometimes, I may go back to the tent without getting anything," he said.

The Rafah city, located near the border with Egypt, is crowded with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by Israeli raids amid worsening humanitarian conditions.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a press statement that with an estimated fourfold increase in population density, exceeding 12,000 people per square kilometer, Rafah is now the most densely populated area in the Gaza Strip.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA, nearly 1.9 million people in Gaza, or approximately 85 percent, have been displaced from their homes.

The death toll of Palestinians from Israeli attacks in Gaza has risen to 19,667 and 52,586 others wounded since Oct 7, the Hamasrun health ministry said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Israel is continuing to attack Gaza from the air, land, and sea.

"The current unprecedented war has left me helpless as I do not have any money to buy the medicine for my children," Semaan Rashid, another Palestinian taking shelter in Rafah, said.

His family sleeps in an old car and has to wait for hours for food from the UNRWA.

Starvation has been reported among a large number of people taking shelter in southern Gaza, according to the World Food Programme, as food security there is significantly deteriorating with the influx of population.

The WFP estimated that at least 50 percent of displaced families go to bed hungry at night.

The severe shortage of cooking gas has led to heavy reliance on firewood, wood scrap, and burning waste, which increases the risk of respiratory diseases.

Xinhua