Gaza – Saba:
Under a blistering sun, displacement tents in Gaza have turned into "cloth ovens," where thousands of families endure catastrophic humanitarian conditions. Sixty-year-old Nima Ma’rouf is one of them—living with thirty family members, mostly children, in a tattered tent by the roadside, where sweat mixes with tears amid severe water and food shortages and a raging famine since last March.
Nima bitterly describes the reality to *Falastin* newspaper: *"We endured winter, but this heat is unbearable. Our children are melting, the elderly are crying. There’s no breeze, not even a tree for shade."* Her infant grandson, deprived of formula and diapers, suffers from heat rashes while sweltering in winter clothes—the only available garments under siege.
Nima’s ordeal began with Israel’s genocidal war on October 7, 2023, when her home in Beit Lahia was destroyed. She fled repeatedly—from Gaza City to Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, and Rafah—only to return to Gaza amid Israeli threats of a full-scale invasion. Even shelters offered no safety; airstrikes on displacement camps claimed countless lives.
- Her husband gasps for air in the suffocating heat.
- A 12-year-old grandson was shot by an Israeli drone inside their tent days ago.
- Nima, diabetic and hypertensive, has lost 40 kg from hunger and heat: "Anyone who sees my body would weep."
According to UNRWA, 1.9 million Gazans (90% of the population) face catastrophic conditions after forced displacement, with families losing all sense of safety. By July–August, the IPC classified large areas of Gaza in actual famine, exceeding international thresholds for acute food deprivation and malnutrition—especially in Gaza City.
143 starvation deaths recorded this year (vs. 50 in 2024, 4 in 2023).
Total casualties since October 2023: 61,369 martyrs, 152,850 injured.
Gaza’s Health Ministry reports 212 famine-related deaths, including 98 children.
UN agencies (WFP, UNICEF) warn that time is running out for a comprehensive humanitarian response, with crippling shortages of food, shelter, and healthcare.
Under tents shredded by sun, encircled by famine and bombardment, Gaza’s displaced stand on the edge of survival—each day stealing more strength, but not their unyielding resolve.