Shocking info on besieged Gaza population

Some 18 months after Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip, some 75,000 Gazans are still internally displaced, with almost one in four people (23%) living in the rubble of their damaged homes, according to a report published Monday.

Only 3,000 out of an estimated 18,000 Gazan homes destroyed or badly damaged during the summer 2014 war have been rebuilt or repaired, according to OCHA — the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The figures emerge from research visits to the more than 16,000 families still displaced as a result of the 2014 war.

Six in ten of those who owned their homes before the war told researchers that they were renting accommodation, which included living in storerooms, unfinished units, substandard apartments in relatives’ or neighbors’ buildings, or with extended families.

On average, they had moved more than twice, with nearly half expressing concern they would be forced to leave their current place of residence as well.

At the height of the genocidal war, nearly 500,000 Gazans, 28% of the population, were displaced from their homes, the report said, fleeing to UNRWA schools, government schools, informal shelters, and the homes of host families.

Some 11,000 homes were totally destroyed, 6,800 were severely damaged, 5,700 suffered major damage and 147,500 minor damage.

Nearly half of the displaced families (47%) do not have enough food to eat, the study found, and three in four depend on trucked water, because of inadequate clean water supplies from the taps.

The report said the hostilities exacerbated the vulnerability of groups such as households headed by women, children and people with disabilities.

Some 44,000 children were displaced at the time of the survey, after an estimated 27,000 children had experienced the complete destruction of their homes.

More than 1,500 children were orphaned in the war, the report said, with 551 children killed and 3,436 injured.

Many of the latter now have to cope with life-long disabilities.