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About two million people in Gaza still need shelter assistance as rain begins, International Organization for Migration says
The International Organization for Migration says its funding is arriving too late and on too small a scale, and that durable building materials are held up by Israeli restrictions. The account comes from UN News, the United Nations' own news service.
About two million people in Gaza still need help with shelter, and the rain has started, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations agency that deals with displaced people. The report was published by UN News, which is part of the United Nations.
Karl Baker, the IOM's regional crisis coordinator for Gaza, spoke to UN News from Amman. He said money had arrived later than usual this year. It is now coming in, he said, but not on the scale needed for what the agency estimates are 1,8 or 1,9 million people who need some form of shelter assistance. UN News reports that the shortfall in funding began to build in January and has made preparations harder.
The agency also faces problems with supply. Baker said the IOM relies on suppliers in China, India and Pakistan, and that goods pass through Jordan, Egypt and Israel before they reach Gaza. He said the regional conflict seems only to be growing and is disrupting trade routes.
Tents are the main shelter on offer. Baker said that in other emergencies the IOM can supply longer-lasting transitional shelter, such as plywood and relief housing units. In Gaza, tents usually last about six months. Because people are displaced again and again, tents are often destroyed or left behind when families flee at short notice. Baker said moving a tent or temporary structure over and over has lowered the quality of what is now inside Gaza.
Baker said most of the durable shelter materials the IOM would normally use are subject to Israeli restrictions, which date back to 2008. They include roofing sheets, cement for floors, and sturdier walls that resist wind. UN News says such items are often treated as a security concern. Baker said the IOM is in contact with Israeli authorities about this five times a day, trying to understand their concerns and adjust what it asks to bring in. He said the agency must keep pressing for more durable items to be allowed in. The source items do not include a response from Israeli authorities.
Space is shrinking as well. Baker said only about 30 % of Gaza is now accessible to most of the population. He said conditions at displacement sites keep getting worse, with many people exposed to flooding and few other places to go.
UN News also reports that more than 4000 buildings, many of them home to thousands of residents, are at risk of collapse, according to reports. Ramiz Alakbarov, acting special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told the Security Council that the United Nations is working with local communities to move people out of unsafe buildings. The source does not say when he spoke.
UN News describes an El Niño weather pattern, stronger than usual, that threatens more rain in the coming months. In Gaza, residents are using what they have. Ahmed Al-Omari told UN News he now fills flour sacks from the World Food Programme with sand to keep rainwater out of his tent. In Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, Mohammed Barhoum, displaced from Rafah, and his children are using metal bars pulled from ruins to reinforce their shelter. UN News says this work is risky because of unstable rubble and unexploded war remnants.
The source items give no figure for the money the IOM has received or still needs.