Gazans share shoes, wear same clothes for months
Finding clothing — any clothing — has become increasingly difficult for the 2.4 million people living in the territory
Daily TribuneFinding clothing — any clothing — has become increasingly difficult for the 2.4 million people living in the territory
A Palestinian shows his worn-out shoes in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip
Bashar TALEB / AFP/File
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES (AFP) — For months, Safaa Yassin has dressed her child in the same white bodysuit, an all-too-familiar tale in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by 10 months of war.
“When I was pregnant, I dreamed of dressing my daughter in beautiful clothes. Today, I have nothing to put on her,” says Yassin, one of thousands of Palestinians displaced from Gaza City.
“I never thought that one day I wouldn’t be able to dress my children,” says the 38-year-old, now living in Al-Mawasi, a coastal area designated as a humanitarian zone by Israeli forces.
“But the few clothes I found before evacuating to the south were either the wrong size or not suitable for the season,” she adds, as Gaza bakes in summertime temperatures of 30-plus degrees Celsius every day.
Finding clothing — any clothing — has become increasingly difficult for the 2.4 million people living in the territory besieged by Israel.
Gaza once had a thriving textiles industry but since the war began on 7 October with Palestinian militant group Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel, it has received just a trickle of goods.
Faten Juda also struggles to dress her 15-month-old son, Adam, who is squeezed into ill-fitting pyjamas, his bare arms and legs sticking out from the tight fabric.
“He’s growing every day and his clothes don’t fit him anymore, but I can’t find any others,” the 30-year-old tells Agence France-Presse.
Sharing shoes
Ahmed al-Masri, 29, left his home in the north of Gaza at the start of the war.
Today in Khan Yunis, in the south, he says he does not have any spare shoes or clothes.
“My shoes are extremely damaged. I’ve had them repaired at least 30 times, each time paying 10 times more than before the war,” he says, his gaunt face burnt by the sun.
Abu Hashem left his home in such a rush that he was unable to take anything with him. He has been wearing the same pair of shoes for five months, but only every other day.
“I share my pair of shoes with my brother-in-law,” he explains.
On the days when he goes barefoot, he fears the worst, tiptoeing around the waste and rubble that carry diseases and contamination of all kinds.
