Report Gaza Flooded and Displaced Left Without Shelter as Public Anger Mounts: Where Is the Administrative Committee?

Exclusive – Shehab

Humanitarian suffering in the Gaza Strip continues to worsen amid accumulating and escalating crises, the latest being the fallout of the recent cold snap, which exposed the severity of the deterioration in infrastructure and the dilapidation of camps and shelter centers, leaving tens of thousands of displaced people battling the cold and rainwater without the bare minimum of life's necessities.

Under these harsh conditions, public questions are mounting daily about the reasons for the delay by the Gaza management committee, headed by Ali Shaath and formed by the so-called "Peace Council," in beginning its duties and addressing urgent crises, amid serious demands on the relevant parties to explain the reasons for the obstruction and to speed up efforts to rescue the pending files.

Flooding and public anger

Displacement camps in the Gaza Strip turned into something resembling lakes within a few hours of heavy rain that submerged the tents and left hundreds of thousands in the open.

This tragic reality has ignited a wave of overwhelming anger among activists on social media, who directed sharp criticism at the administrative committee, which has not entered the Strip at all as of the publication date of this report.

In a message addressed to the committee's chairman, one activist wrote: "Where are you while the tent residents of Gaza drown? You are the first in line of responsibility for the procrastination over Gaza's conditions; the formation of the committee you head made the world fall silent and think that Gaza was facing UN and international rescue measures, but it is clear that Gaza and its suffering are the victim of your procrastinating committee. We have not seen from you even a conference speaking about the suffering of the tent residents, and we have not felt any intervention to lower the prices of goods, vegetables, fruits and meat. You and your committee have obtained contracts and salaries at the expense of Gaza's destruction and ruin."

A catastrophe and legitimate questions

In his reading of the scene, political researcher Dr. Amin al-Hajj told (Shehab) that what Gaza is witnessing has gone beyond a humanitarian crisis to become an open catastrophe, due to the siege, the faltering entry of aid and shelter and reconstruction supplies, and the collapse of infrastructure.

"Al-Hajj" pointed to serious questions imposing themselves forcefully: "Are Gazans being punished because they held on to their land and refused to leave? Is staying in the homeland meant to be turned into an open punishment by making life impossible and pushing residents to depart under the weight of hunger and cold? Displacement is not always by a declared decision; it can be achieved by manufacturing unbearable living conditions that force people to leave against their will."

He added that the occupation bears direct responsibility for the siege and destruction, but that does not absolve the committee of its duty to explain the reasons for the delay and present its plans to confront the catastrophe, stressing that Gaza does not need protocol committees or new statements, but rather an actual administration that bears responsibility, coordinates relief efforts and addresses the world.

"A crime in the full sense of the word"

On another note, researcher and expert in "Israeli" affairs Dr. Mohammed Musleh described, in an interview with (Shehab), the current situation as extremely painful and heart-wrenching, stressing that what the extremist right-wing occupation government is doing aims to make the Gaza Strip an unlivable place and push residents toward migration, or to hold the resistance responsible for what is happening.

"Musleh" said: "Gaza is now going through a phase of breaking the standard of people's steadfastness, by exploiting weather fluctuations, floods and the dilapidation of camps in a narrow border strip that is not wide enough to begin with, where more than two million people live on less than 30% of the Strip's area. This is a crime in the full sense of the word and cannot be met with silence."

"Musleh" criticized the performance of the so-called Peace Council, the technocrats and those who head it, considering that they constitute, in his view, "the wall that stands between holding the occupation accountable."

He added: "They assumed responsibility for managing the Gaza Strip, bringing in tents and caravans and improving conditions, but in reality there is nothing; they live in another world and target the resources of the Palestinian people without offering anything, so that this council has become an additional burden on the Palestinians in Gaza."

"False claims"

The (Hamas) movement had said in a press statement today that the occupation army's claims of communicating with international parties to provide a response to winter requirements in the Gaza Strip are nothing but a blatant attempt to shirk its responsibility for the humanitarian catastrophe exacerbated by its ongoing siege and its refusal to allow the entry of shelter supplies, which has led to the flooding of tens of thousands of tents and deepened residents' suffering with the current cold snap.

The movement said that the horrific scenes of tens of thousands of tents flooding and hundreds of thousands of displaced people being uprooted with the first cold snap expose the falsity of these claims, stressing that the occupation is still obstructing the entry of shelter and repair supplies and the equipment needed to deal with the effects of the massive destruction left by the war of genocide on the Gaza Strip.

It added that the occupation's blatant attempt to present itself as responsive to humanitarian needs in the Gaza Strip fools no one and does not change the fact that it is the cause of this tragedy, through the destruction of homes and infrastructure, its continued suffocating siege, and its deliberate stalling in implementing the humanitarian protocol and the terms of the ceasefire agreement.

It affirmed its rejection of the occupation's attempts to link the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip or the entry of humanitarian needs to any political or security conditions, adding that "providing shelter, food, medicine and a dignified life for residents is an inherent humanitarian right, not a tool for blackmail or for evading legal and humanitarian obligations."

It demanded that the mediators and guarantors, as well as the Peace Council, bear their responsibilities and exert real pressure on the occupation to compel it to implement the concluded agreements, foremost among them the humanitarian protocol, and to allow the national committee to enter and begin its duties, and to lift the restrictions imposed on shelter, relief and repair supplies.

The movement continued, saying that the escalating catastrophe in Gaza, with the intensification of winter conditions, requires urgent action to put an end to the policy of siege and collective punishment, and to secure the urgent humanitarian needs of hundreds of thousands of families facing cold, rain and displacement in tragic and unprecedented conditions.