“When I want a child to go get the food from the food bank or buy something, they refuse to go without footwear. The hot ground for their feet is unbearable. We, as older individuals, experience the same discomfort,” Islam Nattur told Rudaw on Saturday in Khan Younis camp.
Nattur shares a tent with 15 family members - mostly women and children. “Our children have remained without shoes or clothes,” she said. “I personally keep sewing shoes all around the clock."
Used shoes, homemade sandals, or cobbled footwear are commonplace in the camp - if they can be afforded.
Nattur was displaced from her home during Israel’s continued retaliation for Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023, like 90 percent of Palestinians in Gaza, according to UN statistics.
As a result of persistent Israeli relocation orders, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) estimates that around 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza are currently displaced.
Fatima Safi has endured seven displacements. Finding decent clothes is difficult, said Safi, but now there is a shortage of footwear.
“Where do I obtain shoes? that's our concern,” she said. “That goes for the elderly, too. As an elderly woman, when I want to go to the clinic, I find no shoes … I would rather stay in my tent or I have to go and borrow them from my neighbors or relatives."
UNRWA said in a situation report on Friday that with weather conditions worsening and winter approaching, an urgent ceasefire is needed for the people of Gaza and those across the region.
"We are suffering and the children are suffering,” Safi said.
Following the Hamas-led attack on Israel, the latter intensified its blockade of the Gaza Strip, depriving millions of Palestinians of food, water, fuel, medicines, and other essentials.
Rekar Aziz contributed to this report.
