ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
Israel and Lebanon agreed on a ceasefire this week to pause more than a year of fighting. But in Gaza, Israeli airstrikes continue to pound the territory where more than 40,000 people have been killed, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry there. And now people in Gaza have this to contend with - winter has arrived, and most families don't have a home or shelter. Joining us to discuss the latest in Gaza is NPR's international correspondent, Aya Batrawy, who's based in Dubai. Hey, Aya.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Hi, Rob.
SCHMITZ: So, Aya, temperatures dropped into the 40s Fahrenheit at night in Gaza this week, and it began to rain. How are people surviving?
BATRAWY: Well, Rob, many people are hardly surviving. And aid groups warn that this winter will claim even more lives from things like malnutrition, hypothermia, flu and other less visible consequences of this war. Now, NPR's producer Anas Baba met with families in Gaza who are on the very edge of survival. He went to a strip of coastline called Mawasi after a night of rain, and he found families covered in seawater. The few things that they own - some clothes, pots and pans - were buried in the sand by lashing wind and rain. Now, for months, thousands of families were forced to live here, right at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea, because most of Gaza is under Israeli military evacuation order, leaving just this stretch of coast all that's left.
SCHMITZ: That sounds terrible. I mean, what do people have to protect themselves with?
BATRAWY: Well, not very much. I mean, families were able to survive the grueling summer in flimsy tents, but winter is proving impossible. Nidal Abdul Kortati's (ph) tent was made out of used flour bags and some wooden sticks. And he tried to cover it with extra tarping to prepare it for winter, but then this happened.
NIDAL ABDUL KORTATI: (Speaking Arabic).
BATRAWY: So he tells Anas that his children erupted into screams around 2 in the morning. Waves had crashed into their tent, pulling their blankets and things out to sea. And he says his kids were being swallowed by the sea and being pulled by the tide, too. And his 3-year-old daughter was crying all through the night after he pulled her ashore. And with no idea where they can go next, he says where are our human rights?
SCHMITZ: So, Aya, why is it that people don't have proper shelter when aid groups have had months to prepare for winter?
BATRAWY: Well, I asked aid workers this question, and here was the answer.
JAN EGELAND: Too little aid is coming in. And of that aid, a fraction is really distributed.
BATRAWY: So that's Jan Egeland. He's the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. Now, this is the main group in Gaza in charge of shelters and tents. He was in Gaza this month, and he says that the destruction from airstrikes has left the entire territory in ruins. Now, Israel's military says it is facilitating a humanitarian response to prepare for winter in Gaza, that it has allowed tons of aid in. But Egeland says at the rate Israel is allowing in tents and other aid, it will take at least two years to get the supplies in needed just to cover people for this winter.
SCHMITZ: Wow.
BATRAWY: And, Rob, Egeland says of the few hundred tents they have been able to get into Gaza, many are damaged by the time they arrive. Or they end up stolen by armed gangs that have sprung up near Gaza's border with Israel. And these looters attacked a food aid convoy of around a hundred U.N. trucks last week, taking everything.
SCHMITZ: This just sounds like a completely dismal situation. What else do you know about the attack on the aid truck that you just mentioned?
BATRAWY: So this was the biggest looting of U.N. aid anywhere in the world. And armed gangs are taking advantage of the chaos right now in Gaza to attack these trucks. And what that's done is it's driven up prices at the same time that bakeries are shutting down because they don't have flour. People are selling their clothes, their winter jackets and shoes, to buy food. And the World Food Program, which runs these bakeries, also had to suspend giving out parcels. And all this is happening while tents, flour and blankets are sitting in warehouses and on trucks just outside Gaza.
SCHMITZ: That's NPR's Aya Batrawy. Aya, thank you so much for bringing this to us.
BATRAWY: Thanks, Rob. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
