Rains worsen misery as Palestinians struggle to survive in Gaza

Those who continue to survive direct fire are being consumed in multiple other ways, implicating all of us in our collective inaction.

Now that the blazing fires from the Western-supplied bombs dropped by the Jewish supremacists in Israel have relatively quietened down, the incessant winter rains have added to the misery of the Palestinians in Gaza. As the weak and famished genocide survivors struggle to find some normalcy in their lives after two years of infernal fury unleashed upon them, the Israelis have made this modest task nearly impossible.

Despite a supposed “ceasefire,” the Israelis have not only maintained a steady pace of killing Palestinians (they killed three more just today), but they have also kept a tight leash on what enters the besieged enclave. Only about a third of the agreed 600 trucks per day is entering the Gaza Strip, ensuring that Palestinians remain starved and short of basic necessities.

Already flimsy plastic tents are barely able to provide any shelter from the vagaries of nature after two years of continuous use. Few tents have been allowed into the enclave, while no mobile homes have been permitted by the Israelis during the “ceasefire,” as reconstruction of the devastated concentration camp remains a distant dream.

“As winter approaches and famine continues to grip the population, it is critical that all this aid is allowed into Gaza without delay,” Natalie Boucly, an UNRWA deputy commissioner general, told The Guardian. “Our supplies would be able to provide food … for the entire population for about three months. And that is sitting outside [in Jordan and Egypt], not able to come in. And that is the case for the other UN agencies because the restrictions and the constraints are still there.”

In such a devastating scenario, the heavy winter rains in Gaza have wreaked havoc, with many forced to endure long nights on soaking mattresses. Unfed and weakened bodies on water-logged floors amid the winter rains are contributing to another unfolding disaster in Gaza.

“We realised yesterday that in Gaza, it is a luxury to spend the night in a dry place,” Caroline Seguin, Gaza emergency coordinator at Doctors Without Borders, told Al Jazeera, adding that many people were awakened by the floods and were afraid to go back to sleep. “Everything was wet. It was cold. This is just the beginning of the next three months of winter.”

Just like it did over the last two years, the coming winter months will likely claim more lives, with infants being the worst affected. Children, who should be playing on full stomachs after nourishing hot meals, are forced to haul water off their tents to make them somewhat bearable.

The situation is even worse for those left handicapped as a result of Israeli barbarism over the past two years. “We also need to mention that there are many amputees living in the tents, and it is impossible to manoeuvre the wheelchairs, which is also very dangerous for wound infections,” added Seguin. “During last winter, we had a huge increase in admissions to paediatric hospitals, and these were basic, preventable diseases, like respiratory infections.”

As the Israelis occupy more than half of Gaza and continue to strangle the part not under their complete control, depriving its residents of all means of sustenance, desperation has grown. After being forsaken by the rest of the world while they have endured more than 25 months of a non-stop live-streamed genocide, the Palestinians’ frustration with the world’s inaction is palpable.

“I swear we are drowning,” one Palestinian says to the world as he films himself and a friend getting drenched in the incessant rain. “The people of Gaza are currently being soaked, I am only filming this video to show you the extent of the rain and what a terrible situation the people of Gaza are undergoing right now.”

“We complain to Allah, and this complaint will be carried by others as well. We are drowning; I have conveyed the message to you, now it is your responsibility. Allah is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs.”

When passion streams from the heart, the lips themselves become a lyre,
Wings of strength lift the song, carrying complaint to God on high.

-Iqbal (The Answer to the Complaint)

Just as they openly and proudly proclaimed their intentions from the very first days of the genocide, the Israelis have made Gaza unliveable, leaving the besieged and starved survivors to fend for themselves even for something as basic as a night’s sleep on a dry mattress.

Meanwhile, Western and Arab leaders congratulate one another for supposedly halting the Gaza Holocaust, despite having fuelled its fires for over two years. On the ground, however, the reality is starkly different: those who continue to survive direct fire are being consumed in multiple other ways, implicating all of us in our collective inaction.

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