Cold is not a natural disaster when shelter is denied- After destroying over 85% pf Gaza's homes, Israel is blocking the entry of caravans and reconstruction materials

Euro-Med Monitor

@EuroMedHR

 Maha Hussaini

@MahaGaza

 

At least 17 Palestinians were killed when severely damaged homes collapsed on them during winter storms over the past month. 

 

Five children also died from hypothermia in makeshift tents Israel continues to block the entry of reconstruction materials and emergency shelters

 

https://x.com/MahaGaza/status/2003002839493496846 

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"Israel is blocking shelter materials into Gaza while tents are flooded and temperatures drop. They’re preventing the clearance of their unexploded bombs that continue to kill and maim children. They’re not allowing enough food to a starved population. The genocide isn’t over." Assal Rad

#GazaStarving

 Assal Rad

@AssalRad

Israel is blocking shelter materials into Gaza while tents are flooded and temperatures drop. 

 

They’re preventing the clearance of their unexploded bombs that continue to kill and maim children. 

 

They’re not allowing enough food to a starved population. 

 

The genocide isn’t over.

 

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Aid still woefully short of Gaza needs as heavy rains, winter approach- UNRWA slams Israel for crippling Gaza efforts. Despite the ceasefire mandating the passage of humanitarian aid, only a fraction of that needed for the population has been let in by Israel.

Young Palestinian girls play in a new displacement camp set up by the Egyptian Committee in Nuseirat, Gaza Strip, on November 11, 2025 [Eyad Baba/AFP]

By Mariamne Everett and News Agencies

Published On 14 Nov 202514 Nov 2025

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has accused Israel of deliberately crippling its operations and blocking the entry of vital aid to Gaza amid its more than two-year genocidal war, as Palestinians face the onset of heavy rains and winter with sparse shelter or relief.

“Safeguarding UNRWA’s mandate and operations is required under international law; it is vital to the survival of millions of Palestinians; and it is essential for a political solution,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told the UN General Assembly Fourth Committee on Thursday, citing recent findings by the UN Commission of Inquiry and rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) obligating Israel to lift restrictions on the agency.

Lazzarini also told a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York that severe funding shortfalls were threatening UNRWA’s essential services, urging donor nations for more money, so that it could continue its operations in Gaza despite funding cuts by the United States.

“We run week by week, month by month. I know that as of today, we will be able to process our salaries in November, but have no idea if or no visibility if we will be able to process our salaries in December,” said Lazzarini.

Israel has barred UNRWA from operating on its soil after baselessly accusing some of its employees of participating in the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, which triggered the war.

Israel has repeatedly accused UNRWA employees of involvement in the October 7 attack without providing proof.

Following those allegations, the US – historically the agency’s biggest donor – suspended its support.

In the wake of Israel’s decision, UNRWA was forced to repatriate its international staff from Gaza and the occupied West Bank, limiting its food aid distribution abilities.

But it still employs 12,000 people in the Palestinian territory, and its services are vital to Palestinians, Lazzarini insisted.

“About 75,000 people were sheltered in 100 of our premises across the Gaza Strip,” he said.

“We have, over the last two years, provided more than 15 million primary health consultations. Today, the average is about 14,000 a day,” he added, also noting the agency’s joint vaccination campaign with UNICEF and the World Health Organization. UNRWA also provides education for tens of thousands of children.

“In the absence of a significant influx of new funding, the delivery of critical services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region will be compromised,” Lazzarini added.

While US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said UNRWA will have no role in post-war Gaza, in sync with Israeli demands, Lazzarini noted that since the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold, “we have expanded our services”.

‘Terrifying nightmare for a lot of families’

Under the ceasefire, which took effect on October 10, and which Israel has violated hundreds of times, aid deliveries were supposed to be significantly ramped up, with at least 600 trucks a day due to enter Gaza to fulfil the population’s needs.

However, only “around 150 trucks” have been entering Gaza daily, carrying supplies that are not sufficient for the “two million Palestinians that are currently displaced and homeless”, said Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza.

“There are a lot of Palestinian families who have said that there are no tarps, no tents, and they didn’t receive any humanitarian aid”, despite the arrival of the aid trucks, said Khoudary.

The lack of supplies, coupled with the onset of winter, is a “terrifying nightmare for a lot of families and especially for those who are living in makeshift camps”, said Khoudary.

The lack of supplies has prompted the UN to warn that the hunger crisis in Gaza remains catastrophic, particularly in the north, where famine was declared in August, due to the slow and difficult route aid convoys face from the south.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid and commercial cargo resumed passage through the northern Zikim border crossing earlier this week.

Israel had closed the crossing, the main entry point into the hard-hit northern Gaza Strip, for two months, with its reopening welcomed by Palestinians and UN aid agencies.... READ MORE   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/14/unrwa-slams-israel-for-crippling-gaza-efforts-aid-woefully-short-of-needs

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" ... It is a responsibility. A responsibility for them to speak as they suffer, a responsibility for me to carry their story, and a responsibility, ah, what a responsibility, for you to take action. Yes, it is your money that is killing us and funding our murderers and oppressors. It is your governments that are protecting our slaughterers." Mosab Abu Toha

Mosab Abu Toha: Forest of Noise (Knopf 2024)/ Pulitzer Prize/ OPC/ American Book Award/ National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist/ Founder of the Edward Said Public Library

 

Mosab Abu Toha

 

@MosabAbuToha

 

"My wife and I just spoke with our families in Gaza. Most of them told us they’ll be sleeping tonight on mattresses and blankets completely soaked with rainwater. 

 

More than half of our relatives are children, some under the age of five. 

 

And yes, tonight they will sleep on wet mattresses and blankets, in a tent on the street. 

 

I know that sharing this won’t change anything for them, not tonight, and not even next year. 

 

How do I know? 

 

Because babies have burned in tents, been beheaded, and been buried beneath the rubble, and not a single person stepped in to save their lives. 

 

So how am I supposed to expect that anyone will save the life of a child who may die from the cold? 

 

Can a camera capture the cold the way it captures flames? 

 

Anyway, the only reason I’m writing this is because they told me these things, and I feel it is my duty to share them with you. 

 

It is a responsibility. 

 

A responsibility for them to speak as they suffer, a responsibility for me to carry their story, and a responsibility, ah, what a responsibility, for you to take action. 

 

Yes, it is your money that is killing us and funding our murderers and oppressors. 

 

It is your governments that are protecting our slaughterers."  

 

https://x.com/MosabAbuToha/status/1989366779861147914

 

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& on Substack

 

Mosab Abu Toha

Pulitzer Prize-winning Palestinian writer and poet from Gaza. 

I’m running out of words as I watch the devastating scenes of rainwater flooding people’s tents in Gaza’s streets.

I talked to my family and my wife’s, all our relatives who live in tents in the street and deeply suffering.

I’m disgusted with a world that has allowed Gaza to continue suffering, even after the so-called “ceasefire.”

Not a single house has been rebuilt. On the contrary, Israeli terrorist forces are blowing up more houses in areas of Gaza they are still occupying.

There are babies who may not survive the cold.

And yet, who cares?

I’m posting this so everyone can see.

I’m posting this because I will never forgive or forget.

I’m posting this so future generations will witness the cruelty of the occupation and the leaders, as well as those who support them, who enable this suffering.

https://substack.com/@mosababutoha/note/c-177209519 

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Three more Palestinian children have frozen to death due to the "severe cold" as Israel continues to bar the entry of temporary homes into Gaza, says Saeed Salah, director of the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society.

Al Jazeera English

@AJEnglish

Three more Palestinian children have frozen to death due to the "severe cold" as Israel continues to bar the entry of temporary homes into Gaza, says Saeed Salah, director of the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society.

 

"Currently, I am in the city of Khan Younis surrounded by destruction as families live in the remains of destroyed residential buildings. And children live inside these buildings without any type of essential humanitarian facilities, including electricity, water and sanitation.

That is why mobile homes and shelters are highly required by the Palestinian faction in Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement.

But Israel, until now, has not allowed a sufficient number of mobile shelters and tents to enter the Gaza Strip.

Families have been using makeshift tents for more than one and a half years, and now they live in open spaces. In particular, children and the elderly have been left vulnerable to facing the cold weather in Gaza."

Tareq Abu Azzoum

Reporting from Khan Younis, Gaza

Updates: Israel keeps up West Bank raids; 3 Gaza children freeze to death

 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/2/25/live-israel-demolishes-vast-areas-of-west-banks-jenin-sets-up-army-base

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