By Olivia Le Poidevin<\/p>\n
GENEVA, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Almost all of Gaza’s population need tents or help with shelter ahead of winter, withthe El Ni\u00f1o weather phenomenon expected to bring heavier rainfall, while supplies remain scarce due to Israeli restrictions, the UN migration agency said on Friday.<\/p>\n
The El Ni\u00f1o \u2014 which could be the strongest ever, according to the UN weather agency \u2014 could further weaken unsafe buildings, and cause flooding amid the enclave\u2019s heavily damaged drainage systems, the IOM said.<\/p>\n
Almost 2 million people inside the enclave, largely devastated by the war launched by Israel in response to Hamas’ assault in October 2023, require assistance, but only about 17% of the needs for winter shelter supplies have been met by humanitarian actors, IOM Director General Amy Pope said.<\/p>\n
“Families who have already endured repeated displacement and devastating loss must be able to face the winter in safety and dignity,” Pope said, adding that constraints by Israeli authorities are making it hard for agencies to scale up their responses.<\/p>\n
Some 8,600 emergency shelter kits, comprising wood, a tarpaulin and some basic materials, have not been allowed by Israeli authorities to enter Gaza, as they have been determined as dual use, theIOM said.<\/p>\n
COGAT, the Israeli military arm that oversees aid flows into Gaza, did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment. Israel cites security concerns for its curbs on Gaza.<\/p>\n
IOM said they had been able to bring in some tarpaulin and tents, but that it was not enough at the current scale needed in Gaza.<\/p>\n
More than half of all tents and makeshift shelters in the enclave need replacing as they are in poor condition, theIOM said, warning that there are few alternatives with war-damaged buildings posing safety risks.<\/p>\n
More than 3,600 structures were identified in August as dangerous and at risk of collapse, whilearound 1.8 million people are living in displacement sites – most in flood-risk areas, the IOM said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin;Editing by Alison Williams)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Olivia Le Poidevin GENEVA, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Almost all of Gaza’s population need tents or help…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-641303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}