At a time when humanitarian solutions have stalled under the weight of the tightened Israeli blockade, displaced people in the Gaza Strip face a harsh reality: tents are no longer fit for habitation. As the occupation continues to obstruct the entry of prefabricated housing units through the crossings, the cries of thousands of families who lost their homes and now live in conditions lacking the most basic necessities for decent housing grow louder, amidst bitter questions about the effectiveness of limited initiatives in the face of the catastrophic need. In a dilapidated tent lacking even the most basic safety features, 37-year-old Youssef al-Daya sits in a displacement camp in northern Gaza, watching his six children shiver from the bitter cold as rainwater seeps into their worn mattresses. “We lost our six-story house,” al-Daya tells the Palestine newspaper bitterly, “and now we are told to thank God that we are living in a tent. A tent is not a house; it is a piece of cloth that covers us in the summer and floods us in the winter. We are not asking for palaces; we are only asking for a caravan that preserves what little dignity and privacy we have left.” The suffering of widow Sanaa Hassan (60 years old), who lives with her four children and their families in three adjacent tents, is no different. She says in a voice heavy with fatigue: “I am a sick woman, and the dampness is eating away at my bones. The caravan for me is not a luxury, but a private room where I can take my medicine and sleep with dignity away from people’s eyes.”
In an effort to break the siege, the Algerian Al-Baraka Association announced an initiative to manufacture prefabricated housing units (caravans) locally within the Gaza Strip. Hatem Al-Yazji, the association’s deputy director, revealed to the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds that production of 30 caravans has begun in the first phase, which will be allocated to the southern part of the Strip as an urgent humanitarian priority. Al-Yazji emphasized that the initiative has a vision that goes beyond temporary solutions, indicating a future focus on the northern part of the Strip to launch a larger project: the establishment of a fully integrated residential city. The aim is to help residents remain in their areas and provide a minimum standard of living for affected families. He stressed that the project is being implemented in full coordination with the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, and that the distribution mechanisms will adhere to precise and transparent criteria to ensure that the units reach those most in need.
