“I am terrified that the cold will succeed where the bombs failed”

As Palestinians in Gaza prepare for two more days of storms, heavy rains and flooding, ActionAid urgently calls for the opening of border crossings and for more aid to enter Gaza.  

Alaa AbuSamra, Emergency Response Programme Manager, ActionAid Palestine, in Gaza said: “The suffering in Gaza is relentless. The bombs may have lessened, but the pain has not. It has simply changed shape. Now the suffering falls from the sky as freezing rain. Floods rip through tents. Storms batter families who have nothing left to lose. Gaza has become a hellscape where every new month brings a new way to struggle or die. 

 “I am a parent. I have children. And like every displaced mother and father in Palestine, I am terrified that the cold will succeed where the bombs failed.  

 “I have stood in flooded camps and watched families dig channels with their bare hands to stop water from reaching their children at night. I have seen mothers and children forced to remain awake all night, standing in freezing floodwater inside their tents, without electricity, without heat, and without the strength left to do anything more. I have listened to parents describe wrapping their children in plastic sheets because there are no blankets left. 

 “This is not survival with dignity. This is people are being forced to endure the unendurable. 

 “This must stop. A ceasefire is not real if airstrikes continue and aid is blocked, with people left to freeze. Several children died in the previous winter, and several have already died this winter too. Families need proper shelter so they can survive the winter and do so with dignity. The terms of the ceasefire must be upheld, that means allowing shelter items to enter Gaza, stopping the reliance on expensive commercial goods, and letting humanitarian organisations deliver aid at scale. 

 “Today, because supplies are blocked, a single shelter costs more than $1,000 on the market. That is an impossible price in a place where people have lost everything. This is not a shortage; it is a decision. And these decisions are costing lives. 

 ENDS 

Alaa AbuSamra, Emergency Response Programme Manager, ActionAid Palestine, in Gaza is available for interview.  

Jamil Sawalmeh, Country Director of ActionAid Palestine and Riham Jafari, Advocacy and Communications Coordinator at ActionAid Palestine, are available for interview.  

Please contact the press office at media-enquiries@actionaid.org for requests.