In Pictures

Gallery|Humanitarian Crises

Sheltering Gaza’s displaced

Many people living in an overcrowded, underfunded school in Beit Hanoun say they are running out of patience.

A recent assessment by UNRWA found that 96,000 Palestinian homes in Gaza - more than twice as many as initially estimated - were damaged or demolished during Israel(***)s summer bombing campaign.
By Megan O'Toole
Published On 30 Dec 2014

Children swarm into the yard each time new visitors arrive at the UNRWA school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Beit Hanoun. There are dozens of tiny hands grasping, dozens of tired eyes pleading.

This school, known locally as el-Masreyyeen, has for months been home to scores of Palestinians displaced by Israel’s 51-day summer assault on the besieged Gaza Strip. The conflict killed more than 2,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians and damaged or decimated more than 96,000 homes.

Outside the classrooms-turned-living-rooms at Masreyyeen, laundry hangs off the turquoise balcony railings lining each floor. Children run after each other on the wet pavement below.

Watfa al-Althamna has been living here with her husband and their 11 children for four months, and says it is a challenge every day. “The cold in the winter, there are no mattresses; after having our own land and houses [destroyed], now we are considered poor,” Althamna told Al Jazeera.

Exacerbating matters, she has no idea when her family will be able to leave this place. “We don’t know when we are going home… No-one has provided enough money for us to rent a house,” she said.

Althamna’s frustration is echoed by many of Gaza’s displaced, who are running out of patience with overcrowded and underfunded temporary shelters and a lack of progress on reconstruction. Milina Shahin, a spokesperson for the UN refugee agency (UNRWA), acknowledged the difficult circumstances – but as for when displaced residents will be able to return home, “it is the question no-one can answer”. 

Throughout the Gaza Strip, UNRWA school buildings are temporarily sheltering more than 19,000 internally displaced persons.
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Inside these schools, the UN refugee agency provides for residents(***) essential needs, including food, water and basic hygiene.
Grandmother Wadha al-Kefarna said she ended up here after another school, where she was sheltering, got bombed, killing one of her sons and wounding 17 other family members."It(***)s very difficult. We are homeless, we have no food… To rebuild our houses is the most important thing."
UNRWA has said that as of January 2015, it will no longer have the necessary funding to provide residents with transitional shelter cash assistance or money to repair their homes. The impacts of ceasing these payments would be "dramatic", the agency noted.
An estimated $720m is needed to provide for the needs of displaced Palestinians and assist with reconstruction. To date, just $100m has been pledged.
Many residents sheltering at Masreyyeen said they were concerned about the effects of plunging winter temperatures on their children(***)s health.
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The close proximity of classrooms at the school, combined with the massive number of displaced residents, prevents any semblance of privacy, Shahin acknowledged.
"We hope to find a solution so people can have a dignified life," Shahin said. "But we don(***)t know when this will happen."