Action Aid International said that the humanitarian situation in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip has reached the breaking point, as more than a million people are gathering in a very crowded area, with more arriving every day, with an area estimated at about 32 square kilometers.

The organization explained in a statement issued today, Saturday, that hundreds of thousands of people are sleeping in the open, without adequate clothing and shelter against the cold and rain, due to overcrowding in shelter centers and exceeding their capacity.

It pointed out that more than 20 people share the tent, and every day represents a struggle for citizens to find food and water, as all residents of the Gaza Strip now face levels of hunger, with the risk of famine increasing day by day.

Abdel Hakim Awad, a member of a youth group for a partner organization of ActionAid/Palestine, touched on the catastrophic humanitarian conditions that people face in Rafah, saying: “We live in a situation that cannot be described as humanitarian. There is no health, no food, no… The basic necessities of life, and there are not enough tents that can accommodate all the people who came from the central region of the Gaza Strip, as they sleep in the open, and you must have 3,000 shekels (equivalent to 635 British pounds) in order to be able to buy a tent. He added: If you want to buy something, like food in the morning, afternoon, or night, it should be one meal, which you might get in the middle of the day, and that meal costs at least 50 shekels (£10.58).

As for the health situation, he pointed out that whoever is infected must remain in his home, because there is no place to receive him at all, as there is no electricity, and solar energy or solar cells are used for charging on normal days, and you must wait three days until you receive a charge, and there is “There are queues for fresh water, there are queues for salt water, there are queues for food, there are queues for drinking, everything has a queue.”

UNICEF explained that there were approximately 3,200 new cases of diarrhea on average every day among children under the age of five, and in one week of December, while diarrhea cases usually recorded before October 7 reached approximately 2,000 cases in this category. age every month, and maintaining hygiene levels is almost impossible, due to the lack of potable water and sanitation, as hundreds of people are forced to use a single toilet or bathroom to shower.

According to Action Aid, the picture is similar elsewhere in the south and central Gaza Strip, where air strikes have intensified in recent days, and more than 85% of the population - about 1.9 million people - have been displaced from their homes several times, and face a daily struggle to meet their basic needs. .

Citizen Laila was displaced from her home, and now resides in a tent with her children and extended family in a camp located in southern Gaza, which she says is home to 100,000 people.

She said: “We live in tents. There are none of the necessities for the life we live. We are starving and struggle to find water and food. We were flooded with water during the nights when it rained on us. Our children have no way to keep them warm. There are no blankets, nothing, and our mother She suffers from asthma, and she also had a traffic accident during the war. My sister is also about to give birth, and we have no blankets or things to keep her or our children warm.”

Another humanitarian case is for citizen Amira, who was displaced from her home in the north, and is currently living in a tent with her four children, the youngest of whom is one and a half years old, in Khan Yunis, while her husband is still in the north.

She says: “Thank God we found what is called a ‘shelter’, but frankly for me, my children and my family, it is not a shelter. Here I suffer from the cold, because my children and I do not find enough blankets. We suffer a lot when we want to go to the bathroom. We stand in line.” "For a long time, the bathrooms were far away. We suffered from gastroenteritis more than once. My children all fell ill in succession and recovered again... I have no shelter, no income or money to spend or buy anything with."

The international organization noted in its report that the amount of aid entering Gaza is still completely insufficient to cover this huge level of needs, as approximately 200 trucks carrying food, medicines, and other supplies are currently entering on average daily.

Despite the enormous challenges, the organization and its local partners, such as: Al-Wefaq Association for Women and Children’s Care, support them by providing food aid, hygiene supplies, and “winter supplies” that contain warm clothes, blankets, and mattresses, as well as providing a number of people with cash assistance. To enable them to purchase basic materials.

The organization is also working in partnership with the "Wefaq" Association to build 60 health units for women and girls in Rafah, giving them a private space to maintain their hygiene with dignity.

For her part, Reham Jaafari, communications and advocacy officer at ActionAid/Palestine, says: “The conditions that people face in Rafah are incredible, as the infrastructure collapses, under the pressure of meeting the needs of the population, at nearly four times its usual capacity, and aid flows at a rapid pace.” Painfully slow We heard miserable stories of 20 family members having to cram into one tent, people having to stand in line for hours to use the toilet, and parents not eating their share meal after meal so they could at least give their children something to eat.

It is likely that the situation will worsen with the displacement of more people from the central region and other areas in southern Gaza, and with the intensification of air strikes.

She stressed that only an immediate and permanent ceasefire will stop the death toll from rising, allow enough life-saving aid to enter Gaza, and provide some relief to those struggling to survive in Rafah and elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.