Gatekeepers of Misery: Turning Winter Into a Weapon

Gatekeepers of Misery: Turning Winter Into a Weapon

Families in Gaza are trying to survive nights that no one should endure. Kids sleep in soaked sand. Parents stay awake guarding the walls of torn tents. Babies are wrapped in plastic bags because nothing stays dry. And the most painful truth is this: there are tents in warehouses, but they are not being allowed in.

Nearly 1.9 million people have been displaced.
Between 35% and 70% of buildings in Gaza are damaged or destroyed. #Palestinian data puts the numbers even higher.

Yet fewer than 12,000 tents have entered Gaza since the war began.
Meanwhile- a single storm destroyed 13,000 tents in one night.
People are left rebuilding shelter from garbage, broken wood, and whatever fabric they can find. Flood-waters drench tents and items float away.

Aid organisations report that tent poles, framing kits and other shelter materials are still restricted from entry. Millions of items for shelters - including tents, sealing and framing kits - are stuck at crossings awaiting approvals. NGOs say that since the ceasefire took effect, Israel has rejected dozens of aid requests for tents and related materials, on the grounds that the organisations were “not authorised”.

This is not scarcity. It is denial.

Warehouses hold supplies. They’re ready.
But people on the ground live exposed because someone won’t open the gate.

So yes, people in Gaza are sleeping in mud not because the world forgot them, but because someone at a crossing decided a tent pole is a threat.

You cannot open the border yourself. But you can raise the cost of keeping it closed.

1. Name the banned items clearly
   Tent poles, framing kits, wood, tarps - when people hear these specifics, the reality cuts deeper.
2. Pressure your government
   If you live in a country that arms, funds or diplomatically backs Israel, your government has leverage. Push for:
    • Real, unconditional aid access including shelter items
   • Removal of essential shelter items from any “dual-use” or restricted lists
   • Transparent tracking of what enters #Gaza and what doesn’t
3. Keep shelter in the conversation
   Shelter is survival too. When tents collapse into sewage and rain floods shelters, death doesn’t always come from bombs - it comes from exposure.

Families are not freezing in tents because there are no tents.
They are freezing because the tents are sitting behind a gate someone refuses to open.

Until that changes, Gaza will remain a place where children fall asleep wet and wake up shivering, even though the world already has what they need to stay warm.

1. Lack of tents, food and warm clothes leaves Gazans exposed ahead of winter
2. Floods swamp homeless Palestinians’ tents in Gaza as winter looms
3. As weather turns wintry in Gaza, residents worry about shelter, food and flooding
4. Shelter and food in desperately short supply as Gaza braces for harsh winter
5. Ceasefire in Gaza has not brought promised levels of aid … shelter support is most critical

Nobody is Free Until Everybody is Free

• AmyraCull • Substack •
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