Gaza's Mud Hell: Building a New Society in Dystopian Tent Cities

[Nanjeanne]

Last edited Thu Feb 1, 2024, 06:32 PM - Edit history (2)

Southern Gaza has become a huge tent camp: Dr. Fidaa al-Qurshali has set up a free clinic, while 'Teacher Tariq' has turned his tent into a classroom. Displaced Palestinians in Rafah make do despite the massive overcrowding and shortages

"Anybody who has a tent is lucky. It's hard to get a tent these days," said Abeer, 43, who is living in a tent with her family in the southern Gaza city of Rafah near the Egyptian border. "There are 11 of us in one tent. It's very cramped."

SNIP

According to UN figures, 1.7 million people – about 75 percent of the population of the Gaza Strip – have been displaced since Hamas' October 7 attack and the beginning of the war. Satellite footage published this month in Haaretz shows tent cities in Rafah, where, according to the United Nations, around a million people are crowded.

"People are looking for tents because it's the only available accommodation that can protect them from the rain, but it doesn't shield you against the cold. Every day, people ask me how we got the tent; some of them improvise temporary tents from plastic sheets and empty flour sacks," Abeer said in a video call.

"From the first day, we realized we needed iron or wooden poles to secure and stretch the tarpaulins. When the weather was stormy the tarps almost flew off. My husband managed to get four poles from a carpentry shop in Rafah, but now we're looking for high-quality nails to secure the tarps so they won't rip."

In the video call, you could see sand around the tent, with children crying in the background and clothes hanging on a line. Before the war, Abeer worked as an assistant in a pharmacy in Gaza City. She said living in a tent is both a psychological and physical hardship.

"I feel like I've lost everything," she said. "My whole life, 43 years in which I studied, worked, built a home with my husband and raised our kids there, was shattered in a single moment."

SNIP (Read whole article for many families’ heartbreaking stories)

A few hundred meters away is the tent of "Teacher Tariq." In footage shown on Al Jazeera, children enter and leave the tent and talk about what they learned in the lesson.

"When I heard that Teacher Tariq would teach us, I signed up for the class, because it's important to me to keep learning and fulfill my dream of becoming a doctor," 10-year-old Malek told Al Jazeera. "The studies in the tent gave me hope after I lost it when the war started, because we had no school and no teachers," she said."

Everything breaks when I read this and saw the pictures. I try to find words and I have none.

Haaretz Free Link https://archive.is/GLeSs

Subscriber link https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/2024-01-30/ty-article-magazine/.premium/mud-world-gazans-build-a-new-society-in-dystopian-tent-cities/0000018d-5a59-d0fc-a9bd-5e5d50890000]


Edited because it appears that although this article is much longer than is posted above, I’ve been notified that I must edit — so read the article to get the full scope of this horror that obviously is too upsetting for some to fathom.




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[malaise]

1. Nothing justifies this response

That is pellucidly clear

[Nanjeanne]

2. Well sadly not for some people.

[Autumn]

3. My heart breaks.

[Lonestarblue]

4. How many more Palestinians must live in misery and watch their children die to satisfy Netanyahu's determination

to prevent a Palestinian state and thus no peace for Israel. Netanyahu has refused to allow a Palestinian state. It’s time for world leaders to tell him that he no longer has any say and to start setting up mechanisms for a Palestinian state. Israeli citizens can choose to keep Netanyahu and his right-wing MAGA crowd or they can work with an international community to do what is right.