SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
A severe storm has unleashed cold wind and heavy rain across Gaza. This is the territory's third winter since the war began, with a recent ceasefire providing only limited relief. NPR's Anas Baba reports from Gaza where people are struggling to stay warm and dry.
(SOUNDBITE OF HEAVY RAINFALL)
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: In this expanse of makeshift tents, sewage overflows because drainage system were destroyed in the war. The dirty water seeps into people's makeshift tents. People here huddle under flimsy plastic sheets that cannot withstand heavy rain or wind. But even real tents cannot protect from the storm. This one is home to a couple and their three surviving children. Their eldest child was killed in an Israeli attack in the war.
It's actually super cold inside here. I can feel it. I can feel the water just dripping on top of me and the plastic shroud, and you can hear the rain. You can feel the cold.
Raed el-Ghazawi is forced to call this tent home.
(SOUNDBITE OF BABY CRYING)
BABA: His baby cries out from the cold.
RAED EL-GHAZAWI: (Non-English language spoken).
BABA: He says the family of five have just three mattresses. At night, they huddle together with all the blankets they have to stay warm.
EL-GHAZAWI: (Non-English language spoken).
BABA: "If the Israelis didn't kill us with bombs or we didn't die from their missiles, we die of the cold and winter," el-Ghazawi says.
EL-GHAZAWI: (Crying, inaudible).
BABA: He cries as he remembers his 9-years-old son, Hamza, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his way to get food for the family during what U.N.-backed experts say was a man-made famine in Gaza City this past summer. U.N. aid groups say they are rushing to reach families with more winter kits and warm clothes. They say children are at risk of hypothermia. Health officials say several babies froze to death last winter in Gaza. More have since died of hunger. And the vast majority of people in Gaza today have no homes to shelter in. The U.N. says more than 90% of homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli bombing. Gaza's civil defense says several damaged building collapsed from the downpour this week. Nahla Al-Majdoop says her family clothes and blankets are soaking wet from the rain.
NAHLA AL-MAJDOOP: (Non-English language spoken).
BABA: She says the plastic tarp she and her eight kids were sheltering under collapsed from the rain on their heads at 2 a.m. And like others here, she says she cannot find a tent to sleep in.
AL-MAJDOOP: (Non-English language spoken).
BABA: Israel says aid is flowing into Gaza and that hundreds of trucks of goods are entering daily, including some carrying winter supplies. But aid groups say that after more than two years of war, Gaza's 2 million people are in need of far more. The Norwegian Refugee Council, which oversees the distribution of shelter supplies in Gaza, says Israel impeding the entry of supplies and has rejected 4,000 pallets of tarps, tents and sealing materials. COGAT, the Israeli military body overseeing goods into Gaza, declined to answer specific questions from NPR or disclose how many tents have entered Gaza during the past two months of ceasefire.
(CROSSTALK)
BABA: There is a brief window of reprieve from the rain, but this is no time to rest. Children in coats and flip-flops carry empty jugs to fetch water. Mothers head off the soup kitchens to secure a meal. Fathers dig and place bags of sand around the tents. All brace for another night in Gaza. Anas Baba, NPR News, Gaza City. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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