Displaced Gazans who spend their days in makeshift tents or huddled around outdoor campfires told CNN of the additional hardships the winter has brought.
Temperatures have dropped to almost zero degrees in the eastern Mediterranean in recent days and there have been several winter storms bringing heavy rain to the region.
Ayman Jamal, who moved his family to Deir al-Balah in central Gaza from Shujaiya in the north, showed CNN inside his store. Its walls are made of thin nylon sheets attached to a rudimentary wooden structure; There are spaces between the sheets where rain can enter. There is no sheet of soil to offer protection from wet soil, just compacted sandy soil.
“Last night it was very cold. We couldn't sleep, we moved from place to place inside the tent. The rain seemed to follow us wherever we went,” Jamal told CNN. “My kids were frozen.”
In another corner, 10 children, all under 10 years old, gathered around a pot full of water that was heated by a simple charcoal fire. They were barefoot and raised their hands to the steam to keep warm.
“We are all sick and no one cares. “We don’t have any medicine,” said one of them. “We are very dirty. It's been a long time since we took a bath. Please stop this for a moment.”
The United Nations estimates that almost 90% of Gaza's population of more than 2 million people has been displaced by the war.
