Gazans buying used clothing to protect their children from cold

Palestinians who have been displaced in the Gaza Strip by Israeli attacks are forced to buy used clothing to keep their children warm during the winter.

Residents have had to leave their belongings behind in various regions of Gaza and head toward southern areas after fleeing attacks. They are living in nylon tents and adapting to their “new lives” as they face tough days as the weather gets colder.

Palestinians cannot meet their nutritional, shelter and clothing needs due to the closure of border crossings by Israel in the besieged region.

Gazans purchase second-hand clothing from makeshift “shops” set up in nylon shacks to protect themselves from the cold.

After the Israeli attacks, the new clothes sold in the remaining clothing stores are struggling to find customers due to a low supply caused by the closure of the border crossings, coupled with a consequent unreasonable increase in prices.

“I found a second-hand wool sweater for my daughter. It’s too big for her, but it serves its purpose. The important thing is to keep my daughter warm in the tent we’re staying in,” Asil el-Hatib, who was forcibly displaced from her home in Gaza to the southern city of Rafah, told Anadolu.

“Before the Israeli attacks, I wouldn’t buy second-hand clothes. However, due to our current situation, poverty, cold weather, and the lack of options, I had to buy these clothes so that my children don’t die from the cold,” she said.

Rim Halef, 39, from northern Gaza, said the situation could negatively affect their health.

“The problem is that used clothes may not be clean. How will we clean the clothes from the dust and microbes that accumulate on them? These microbes can cause skin and respiratory diseases in children,” she said.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following an Oct. 7 Hamas attack, killing at least 25,700 Palestinians and injuring 63,740 others. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the attack by the Palestinian resistance group.

The Israeli war has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine. At the same time, more than half of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.