HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

Sabah, her husband Ahmad, and their seven children spent weeks sleeping in the open after losing their home. The pavement became their bed; the sky, their only blanket.

“We fled from Shuja’iya to Rimal, then to the south – Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat – and then back to Shuja’iya,” Ahmad explains. “Every time we move, we lose more of what little we have.”

Ahmad suffers from heart disease, with no access to medication. One of their children sustained a head injury and lost his memory. Another fell from the fifth floor during a strike. Another died of hepatitis.

“She passed away because I couldn’t get her the medicine she needed,” Sabah says. “I didn’t even have food – not even a sprinkle of salt.”

Before the ceasefire, life had become a daily battle for survival. Families went days without food or clean water. “The hardest thing for a father,” Ahmad says, “is to see your children thirsty, to have water but not allow them to drink because it has to last for days.”

As the weeks stretched on, the toll deepened. “The strain is heavy. Perhaps more than we can bear,” adds Sabah. Families like theirs are not alone.

According to the Shelter Cluster’s assessments, 1.3 million Palestinians in Gaza are in need of emergency shelter assistance after a nearly six-month ban on all shelter materials.

Now, the ceasefire has created a fragile opportunity, and with it, a responsibility to act.

Since the new ceasefire began on 10 October, families have continued to move across Gaza in search of safe shelter, often finding their homes reduced to rubble.

At the time of writing, site management partners have observed over 639,000 movements from the south to Gaza City, with many people heading further north toward Jabalya and Beit Hanun.

Many are still taking shelter in tented or collective displacement sites, often in open areas with no protection or in damaged buildings that offer little safety.

A humanitarian scale-up following the ceasefire is now underway. With its global expertise in shelter and site management, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is part of this critical effort.

Over the past two months, IOM has dispatched more than 660,000 hygiene and shelter items through its Common Pipeline Programme, including over 11,000 tents.

These items are distributed to displaced families by IOM Common Pipeline partners across Gaza. These supplies provide basic protection and offer a measure of dignity to families like Sabah’s who have endured insecurity for so long.

For this fragile calm to lead to sustainable recovery, humanitarian access must improve. IOM and its partners call for the safe, rapid, and unimpeded movement of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

Displaced people must also be able to move freely and return home voluntarily as soon as conditions allow. Humanitarian actors must have sustained access to reach people wherever they are. 

IOM’s warehouses are stocked, trucks are prepared, and relief is ready to be delivered once access is granted. Opening crossings into Gaza and ensuring timely clearance procedures are essential for aid to move. Everything is in place – except the access needed to reach those who need help most.  

As winter approaches, the urgency grows. Without adequate shelter materials, families will face cold nights under the same sky that has already witnessed so much suffering.  

“Today, a fragile hope is returning to Gaza as recovery work begins. The world cannot allow this ceasefire to fail. It must deliver more than calm – it must deliver aid,” says Mohammad Najjar, Programme Manager at the Beit Lahia Development Association (BLDA), an IOM Common Pipeline partner inside Gaza.

Najjar stresses that winterization support is now a top priority. “Families urgently need tents, blankets, and warm clothing. The cold is setting in. Without shelter and warmth, the suffering will deepen.”

Last winter, more than a dozen people, including infants, died from hypothermia. Similar deaths can be prevented this year if families are adequately prepared and receive support before the harsh weather sets in. 

“The long road to recovery is already being paved by Palestinian humanitarian workers, with the support of the international community,” Najjar adds. “But it will take peace, determination, and collective will to ensure that the safety and dignity of Palestinians in Gaza are preserved.”

Tonight, many families will once again lie beneath an open sky. The ceasefire has offered breathing space, but time is short. Winter is approaching, needs are rising fast, and families who have lost everything are waiting for the chance to rebuild their lives with dignity.

The support for IOM’s operations in Gaza is provided by EU Humanitarian Aid (ECHO).

This story was written by Rayya Almuheisen, Senior Communications Assistant with IOM Gaza Response.