Rafah ( Palestinian Territories ) ( AFP )- Khulud Jarboueh and her children fled their home in the northern Gaza Strip in early October while being bombarded by Israeli forces. The children were only wearing shorts and T-shirts.
Issued on: 17/11/2023 – 14:49Modified: 17/11/2023 – 14:47
4 minutes
The sweltering heat of the late summertime persisted at the time. However, she is now rummaging through piles of clothes in search of things to keep them warm in the bitter cold and rain.
The 29-year-old told AFP at a second-hand clothing stall outside an school in Rafah run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees ( UNRWA ) that” We left Gaza City with 20 members of the family more than one month ago.”
Israel had advised people to flee south because it was safer that, so they had left the northern Palestinian territory.
After Islamist Hamas militants stormed across the frontier on October 7 and killed about 1, 200 people, mostly civilians, Israel’s military started a continuous assault of Gaza.
Additionally, they took about 240 victims in problems that prompted Israel to retaliate severely. According to the Hamas government in Gaza, 11,500 individuals, including thousands of children, have died as a result of Jewish attacks.
Currently, Jarboueh and her family are dozing off on the UNRWA school’s surface.
” We did n’t bring any clothing with us. But now that it’s cold, I need to buy winter clothing,” she said at the counter where clothing items cost one shekel each ( roughly$ 0.25 ).
There is no other option.
Living in the Gaza Strip was challenging even before the war.
According to the UN, the siege Israel had imposed on the region since 2007 “hollowed out Gaza’s business” by 2022.
According to UNCTAD, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, “movement regulations also inhibit access to health and other important services, as 80 % of Gazans depend on international help.”
In the heavily populated region crammed between Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea, unemployment was 45 %.

According to the UN, 1.65 million persons in Gaza have been displaced by the battle, and all 2.4 million are currently going hungry. Poverty may just worsen as nearly half of the homes in Gaza are destroyed or damaged.
It’s the first time in my life that I’ve had to purchase used clothing, Jarboueh remarked. Although we are not wealthy, I is typically afford to spend 10 pounds on a piece of clothing for the kids.
They are currently coughing due to the extreme cool. There is n’t anything else I can do.
She asserted that she was certain the worn-out clothing was “full of diseases.”
However, they will need to put them right on. I lack the water to wash my clothes, let alone give my kids a bath.
Lots of Palestinians held up products to assess fabrics or check sizes on a street lined with stalls. Now that the heat has dropped, storms are frequent.
This is not living.
According to Farmer Walid Sbeh, he has been expelled from his property and has no guilder to his name. With his family and 13 kids, he spends each day camped out at the UNRWA class.
He told AFP,” I ca n’t stand it when I see my kids go hungry while still wearing their summer clothes, and I know I have nothing to buy them.”
This is not living. They evict us from our houses and brutally murder us. He claimed that if we do n’t perish in the bombing, we do so from hunger, thirst, illness, and cold.
Sbeh claimed that they brought mats with them when they left after the bombing of their home.
However, the Jewish military instructed us to put everything down and hold our hands up while traveling.

Some persons, he claimed, gave them warmer clothes that their own kids had outgrown.
The owner of a clothing store, Adel Harzallah, claimed that his share of autumn pajamas had run out in just two weeks.
” While we were waiting for winter use to arrive, the war started. The border was supposed to be crossed, but it closed following the Israeli strikes on October7.
His products were then confined to containers, such as food, water, and gasoline, all of which would later be sold for a high price.
One possible client left Harzallah’s shop feeling unsatisfied.
” Price for a coat of ninety pounds”? I have five kids, so I ca n’t afford to pay that, she said.
27-year-old Abdelnasser Abu Dia stated to AFP that he “does n’t have enough to buy food, let alone clothes.”
He only had the garments in which he fled for a fortnight.
However, as the temperature dropped, one gave me and my children clothing coats. We’ve been wearing them nonstop for the past month.
2023 Agency