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Gallery|Poverty and Development

Another winter in Gaza’s makeshift homes

As Gaza’s post-war reconstruction process has faced grinding delays, many residents are still living amid rubble.

Please Do Not Use/ Gaza Homes
Scraping together what money he could, Iyad Najar managed to build four walls, but just three bricks high. The rest of the family home was made from tarpaulins and wooden beams, beside the destroyed remains of their former home. 'The younger children will suffer so much this winter,' Najar said. 'My youngest child is five and is already ill.' [Matthew Vickery/Al Jazeera]
By Matthew Vickery
Published On 11 Dec 201511 Dec 2015
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Gaza Strip – More than a year since Israel’s deadly onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip, the United Nations refugee agency (UNRWA) estimates that 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza are preparing to spend a second winter in damaged homes and makeshift structures.

Despite promises made by Arab nations such as Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates to provide funds to rebuild homes, many families are still waiting for aid. With deliveries of concrete hinging on Israeli permits, Gaza’s reconstruction process has faced grinding delays, fuelling a black market with significantly inflated prices for building materials.

Many of Gaza’s makeshift homes are unfit for the upcoming cold, wet winter. Some have walls made solely out of plastic sheeting and pieces of fabric, while others are made from pieces of corrugated iron. Other families continue to live in precarious, partially destroyed buildings, with gaping holes and dangerous hanging chunks of concrete.

For the families trying to live and survive here, the upcoming winter has become a consuming worry. Rain is already destroying cobbled-together walls, and there is little escape from the cold. Pneumonia killed several Palestinians in Gaza last winter, and many are concerned about what the coming months could bring.

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Please Do Not Use/ Gaza Homes
Using tarpaulins to patch up gaping holes in his partially destroyed house, Abdelraheem Munwar hopes one day to be able to afford repairs. 'Last winter it flooded often,' he said. 'It was cold always. We will suffer again now.' [Matthew Vickery/Al Jazeera]
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Please Do Not Use/ Gaza Homes
A Palestinian teenager studies for school in her family's half-destroyed home in central Gaza. The bombed-out walls and ceiling have been replaced by fabric and plastic sheets, in an attempt to keep the weather out. [Matthew Vickery/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Gaza Homes
Made from pieces of scrap metal and a former animal shack, Suad al-Najar's home in central Gaza floods whenever it rains. 'The youngest children are always wet and cold,' said Najar, whose six children have frequently suffered bouts of pneumonia and diarrhoea. 'I have no idea how long I have to live like this. Our name isn't even listed for donations to help rebuild.' [Matthew Vickery/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Gaza Homes
Hassan and Aliyah stand atop the remains of their home, which was destroyed by an Israeli air strike. They now live in a small, one-room brick structure with their family in Gaza's el-Shaaf neighbourhood. The structure lacks insulation and a watertight roof, and it floods during rainstorms. [Matthew Vickery/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Gaza Homes
To help to accommodate his extended family of 140 people, Abu Marwan created a complex of 14 corrugated metal homes, along with structures made from metal, brick, rocks and wood. Sand and mud, rather than concrete, help to keep the structures together. [Matthew Vickery/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Gaza Homes
Children play on a makeshift swing outside their home, which is made out of metal sheets, in Gaza's Beit Hanoun district. [Matthew Vickery/Al Jazeera]
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Please Do Not Use/ Gaza Homes
Unable to afford apartment rental prices, Nasif al-Falujah and his family are renting a goat shed near Beit Hanoun, patching up the walls with plastic sheets and covering the ground with pieces of fabric. 'It's cold. The rain gets in,' Falujah said. 'It's the children I am worried about - children here in Gaza died last winter with the cold.' [Matthew Vickery/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Gaza Homes
A resident of Gaza stands at the stairs to her basement. Her house was bulldozed by Israel during the 2014 war, and the underground basement room where seven family members now live was the only part that survived. [Matthew Vickery/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Gaza Homes
A Palestinian man stands in his partially destroyed house, where he still lives with his eight family members, despite the safety risks. 'I know it's dangerous,' he said, 'but there's nowhere else we can go.' [Matthew Vickery/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Gaza Homes
Two Palestinian children sit outside the animal shack where they now live. At least four Palestinians who lived in similar conditions froze to death last winter. [Matthew Vickery/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Gaza Homes
A bed sits in a makeshift shelter, which was created out of metal sheets and pieces of fabric. [Matthew Vickery/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Gaza Homes
Basem al-Ghader sits in a home he created out of plastic sheets and scrap wood. A layer of bricks has helped to stop some rainwater from entering, but the nights are cold, and the windy, wet weather has started to rip the walls apart. [Matthew Vickery/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Gaza Homes
A Palestinian woman in central Gaza prepares a meal in the kitchen of her shelter. Light shines through the window, a completely open space framed by scrap wood and thin plastic sheets. [Matthew Vickery/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Gaza Homes
Abu Naji lives in a caravan in central Gaza. When it rains, water leaks in and rots the floorboards and parts of the wall. Mould has set in, and insects can be found living in much of the rotten wood. [Matthew Vickery/Al Jazeera]
Please Do Not Use/ Gaza Homes
Walls created out of plastic sheets and fabric provide little protection from the weather, serving mainly as a method of maintaining some privacy. [Matthew Vickery/Al Jazeera]


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