The occupation prevents entry to temporary housing and deepens the humanitarian crisis in Gaza

Dr. Rami Abdo, head of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, warned of an imminent catastrophe threatening hundreds of thousands of residents of the Gaza Strip with the onset of winter, given the potential collapse of hundreds of partially destroyed homes on top of their inhabitants, and the lack of any safe or adequate shelter. Abdo stated that Israel is exploiting the winter season to exhaust civilians in Gaza, using the blockade as a tool to perpetrate ongoing genocide by preventing the entry of temporary housing and essential shelter materials. He explained that civilians are now trapped between two deadly choices: remaining in buildings threatened with collapse after their structural integrity was destroyed by bombing, or taking refuge in tents that offer no protection from the bitter cold and torrential rains. The head of the observatory accused Israel of adopting a systematic policy of “preventing shelter,” aimed at destroying the residential environment of the Gaza Strip’s residents and depriving them of their right to safe housing. He considered this pattern of violations a strategic tactic to create long-term forced displacement by obliterating the basic necessities of life. Abdo called on the international community to exert immediate and decisive pressure on Israel to lift the ban on the entry of temporary housing and shelter materials into the Gaza Strip without any conditions. He specifically called on the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing to issue an official and urgent appeal to the occupying power, including a clear warning that the continued prevention of the entry of temporary housing under harsh winter conditions will have dire consequences. It amounts to premeditated murder. Abdo concluded that “under no pretext should the basic humanitarian needs of civilians be subjected to security conditions or political bargaining.”