RAFAH: At a Gaza camp for those forced to leave their homes by the Israeli relentless bombardment, Ayman al-Jueidi tried to shift the pooling rainwater weighing down his makeshift shelter.

As he went along, the Palestinian stopped to catch a few drops in his mouth and splash a little on himself. Like many others caught in the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza, he had not showered for days.

The ongoing crisis in Gaza has displaced almost 1.6 million people, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, leaving hundreds of thousands living in cramped shelters with little food and insufficient water.

But on Tuesday those in the south woke up to yet another scourge: rain soaking their meagre belongings and threatening to bring waterborne diseases as it gathers in stagnating puddles.

“We are completely soaked, all of our clothes are soaked, our mattresses, our blankets too, even a dog could not live like this,” said Jueidi, who has set himself up in the courtyard of a UN school in Rafah at the southern extremity of the Gaza Strip.

Those with access to waterproof sheeting are shoring up their makeshift homes. Others are using plastic bags to strengthen their defences against the rain.

Soaked clothes, sick children

“My children’s clothes are drenched and I have nothing for them to change into, they will get sick,” said Jueidi, wearing only a thin t-shirt as the weather turned chilly.

“Where will we sleep? We haven’t eaten anything for three days.” UNRWA gives the family “cans of food and biscuits, but our children are never full, we need bread”, he said.

“We had no water, and then suddenly we were drowned,” said Souha Hassan, who has lived under a tent since Oct 7.

Ms Hassan feared the worst is yet to come. “We don’t have any winter clothes because we left our homes without anything and now all our things are soaked,” she said. “And this is only the beginning. What will happen in the winter, when the rain will be stronger still? Our children are already weak because they don’t eat enough, it will be terrible.”

Another displaced Gazan, Karim Mreish, said people at the shelter were praying for the rain to stop.

“Those children, those women, those elderly pray to God that it doesn’t rain,” he said. “If it does it will be very difficult and words will fail to describe our suffering.”

Ahmed Bayram, a spokesperson for the Norw­egian Refugee Council, said the start of the rainy season could mark “the most difficult week in Gaza since the (military) escalation began.” “Heavy rains will mean more impeded movement for people and rescue teams,” he said.

“It will make it harder to save people stuck under the rubble, or to bury the dead, all of this amidst ceaseless bombardment and a fuel shortage catastrophe.”

The UN has warned of an impending cholera crisis stemming from a lack of fuel, which it has said will bring its aid operations to a halt by Wednesday.

Potable water can no longer be trucked in, sewage pumps cannot be fuelled, and hospitals relying on generators are starting to shut down. “In the next 48 hours, it just comes to a halt, there’s nothing that we can do,” said UNRWA’s Gaza chief Thomas White.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2023