Esraa Kamal al Jamalan was almost eight months pregnant when she, her husband and their five-year-old son were forced to flee their neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan, in northern Gaza, after it was bombed by Israel in late October . They walked more than three kilometers to al-Shifa hospital, where many people took shelter, taking only a few T-shirts and light pants with them, as they expected to return home soon.
Two months later, Esraa, 28, and her family are living in one of hundreds of makeshift tents in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, with no way to protect her newborn from the harsh winter – cold temperatures combined with rain. “When it started raining here, I hadn’t given birth yet. My husband and I were trying to find shelter from the rain, as water kept seeping here and there into the tent,” said Esraa, sitting with her daughter on her lap, her skin pale and yellow. “We have been through difficult days. We’ve never seen anything like this before.
Without shelter in harsh weather conditions and without warm clothes or blankets, the couple struggles to keep their newborn warm in their tent. They also can’t take him outside, near the fires that people light to keep warm, because the smoke makes it difficult for him to breathe.
“The other day she kept coughing (from the wood smoke) until she turned blue. We were terrified that she might die,” Esraa explained, her voice trembling. “What worries me most is my daughter. She hasn’t even been vaccinated yet.
As the Israeli assault on Gaza enters its 12th week, Tel Aviv Tribune spoke to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip about the challenges posed by the onset of winter for the nearly two million internally displaced people. the enclave.