Khan Younis, Gaza – A few metres from the sea, near al-Qarara port on Gaza’s coast, Anas al-Shami, 33, is trying to keep his family of six warm and dry in a dilapidated tent. It offers little protection from wind and rain, while the damp seeps into their bedding and belongings at every moment. The swelling waves in the sea also pose a constant threat as winter approaches.
The beach was not al-Shami’s choice of place to live, but the refuge his family took shelter in after being displaced from their home quickly became overcrowded. They can’t afford anything safer than this tent. Now, he and his family are living in constant fear of a repeat of last winter’s flooding.
Al-Shami and his family were forced to leave Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, when it became part of Israel’s so-called “Yellow Zone” beyond which Palestinians are not permitted to go. He would wake to find his children lying in water. Their bedding and belongings were repeatedly soaked, leaving him unable to protect them from the cold as the tent turned into a pond.
Despite trying all year, the family has been unable to find anywhere else to go, leaving them facing another winter on the beach. It’s a familiar story along this stretch of coastline. Ibrahim Abu Tair, 47, whose family has also been displaced from eastern Khan Younis, is sharing a cramped tent with his seven children on the port’s shoreline.
The dilapidated shelter lacks any basic necessities and offers little protection from the cold, rain and wind. His greatest wish is to find safe shelter where his children can sleep without fear. Some families have found a makeshift solution to keep the water at bay.
By filling damaged cooking pots with earth, they have forged a barrier against encroaching seawater alongside the tents. Mayasem Association, an aid organisation which works in cooperation with World Central Kitchen, has seized on this innovation and is now producing these pot-barriers for families in this area close to al-Qarara port. The initiative reuses large pots rendered unusable by repeated exposure to flames, corrosion and holes.
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