Tents and temporary shelters banned: Israel turns winter into a tool of mass murder in Gaza

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory has warned of serious humanitarian repercussions with the onset of winter in the Gaza Strip, asserting that Israel is turning harsh weather conditions into an additional tool for killing civilians by continuing to prevent the entry of temporary housing and basic shelter materials.

Gaza in further crisis due to Israel

The Observatory explained that Gaza is facing an imminent disaster that could include the collapse of hundreds of homes damaged by bombing on top of their inhabitants, in the absence of any safe or habitable housing alternatives, noting that the weather changes accompanying winter greatly increase the likelihood of structural collapse of cracked buildings.

It pointed out that civilians in Gaza are being forced into harsh choices, either to remain in homes threatened with collapse or to resort to tents that lack the most basic protection from the cold and rain, considering that the Israeli blockade is being used as an executive tool in the ongoing crime of genocide, by creating deadly living conditions.

The Observatory emphasised that Israel’s ‘denial of shelter’ policy pursued by Israel aims to destroy the residential environment in the Strip and deprive the population of their right to safe housing, stressing that this pattern of violations represents a strategic and systematic tactic to bring about long-term forced displacement by erasing the basic necessities of life and pushing the population to leave.

The Observatory called on the international community to exert urgent and effective pressure on Israel to lift the ban on the entry of temporary housing into Gaza, stressing that under no pretext should basic humanitarian needs be subject to security requirements or political bargaining.

The UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing also called for an official and urgent appeal to the Israeli authorities to end this ban, warning that continuing to prevent the entry of temporary housing and shelter supplies in winter conditions could amount to the deliberate killing of civilians.

Featured image via the Canary