A displaced Palestinian films inside their tent and begs for the video to be shared, swearing that life there is harder than anyone could imagine and that no one would accept it, as mice move openly across the ground in front of the children while he speaks.
What the camera shows matches conditions documented across Gaza this summer, the third that displaced families have spent under thin nylon sheeting, with roughly a million people, about 170,000 households, still living in tents while the Israeli occupation restricts the entry of tarpaulins, plastic sheeting and basic shelter supplies, according to the Shelter Cluster and the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Aid groups and Gaza's health ministry describe torn tents turning into plastic ovens in the heat, rats and insects spreading through camps where sewage and rubbish are left uncollected, and skin diseases becoming routine. In the past two weeks alone, health workers recorded around 9,300 cases of chickenpox across more than 130 facilities, which the UN linked to severe overcrowding, summer heat and dwindling access to clean water, more than half of them around Khan Younis.
sakher_ashraf (IG)
