Palestinians Appeal for Help with Short-term Shelter in Gaza

Palestinians transport aid supplies on an animal-drawn cart, amid a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City, February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Palestinians transport aid supplies on an animal-drawn cart, amid a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City, February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
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Palestinians Appeal for Help with Short-term Shelter in Gaza

Palestinians transport aid supplies on an animal-drawn cart, amid a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City, February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Palestinians transport aid supplies on an animal-drawn cart, amid a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City, February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

With fighting in Gaza paused, Palestinians are appealing for billions of dollars in emergency aid - from heavy machinery to clear rubble to tents and caravans to house people made homeless by Israeli bombardment.

One official from the Palestinian Authority estimated immediate funding needs of $6.5 billion for temporary housing for Gaza's more than two million people, even before the huge task of long-term reconstruction begins.

US special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff estimated last week that rebuilding could take 10-15 years. But before that, Gazans will have to live somewhere, Reuters reported.

Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that has moved quickly to reassert control of Gaza after a temporary ceasefire began last month, says Gaza has immediate needs for 200,000 tents and 60,000 caravans.

In the Egyptian city of El-Arish, not far from the Rafah crossing with Gaza, about 1,000 trucks carrying aid, including food, medical supplies, caravans and tents, lined up awaiting entry to Gaza.

"We have trucks carrying aid and tents. We came from Jordan and we were supposed to go straight to the Rafah crossing to provide this aid to the Palestinian side and the Gaza Strip," said truck driver Rami El-Edwan.

Edwan said he and his fellow truck drivers could not figure out the delay's cause, having had conflicting explanations from the various parties operating the crossing and delivering aid.

In addition, it says there is urgent need for heavy digging equipment to begin clearing millions of tonnes of rubble left by the war, both to clear ground for housing and to recover more than 10,000 bodies estimated to be buried there.

Two Egyptian sources said heavy machinery was waiting at the border crossing and was due to be sent into Gaza from Tuesday.

World Food Program official Antoine Renard said Gaza's food imports had surged since the ceasefire and were already at two or three times monthly levels before the truce began.

'DUAL USE' GOODS FACE IMPEDIMENTS

But he said there were still impediments to importing medical and shelter equipment which would be vital to sustain the population but which Israel considers to have potential "dual use" – civilian or military.

"This is a reminder to you that many of the items that are dual use need also to enter into Gaza like medical and also tents," he told reporters in Geneva.

More than half a million people who fled northern Gaza have returned home, many with nothing more than what they could carry with them on foot. They were confronted by an unrecognizable wasteland of rubble where their houses once stood.

"I came back to Gaza City to find my house in ruins, with no place else to stay, no tents, no caravans, and not even a place we can rent as most of the city was destroyed," said Gaza businessman, Imad Turk, whose house and wood factory in Gaza City were destroyed by Israeli airstrikes during the war.

"We don't know when the reconstruction will begin, we don't know if the truce will hold, we don't want to be forgotten by the world," Turk told Reuters via a chat app.



Mourners Attend Funeral of Man Killed in Israeli Airstrikes on Syrian City of Daraa

People gather during the funeral of civilians killed in an Israeli strike on Monday, in Daraa, Syria March 18, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
People gather during the funeral of civilians killed in an Israeli strike on Monday, in Daraa, Syria March 18, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
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Mourners Attend Funeral of Man Killed in Israeli Airstrikes on Syrian City of Daraa

People gather during the funeral of civilians killed in an Israeli strike on Monday, in Daraa, Syria March 18, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
People gather during the funeral of civilians killed in an Israeli strike on Monday, in Daraa, Syria March 18, 2025. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

Syria's foreign ministry on Tuesday condemned the latest Israeli airstrikes on targets in the south of the country, calling the attack a violation of international law.

At least three people were killed in a strike on Monday on the southwestern city of Daraa, where crowds of people had gathered to mark the 14th anniversary of a shooting by government forces that sparked the uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Syria’s Civil Defense said that three people were killed and many others wounded, including four children, a woman and three civil defense volunteers. Hundreds of people attended a funeral on Tuesday for one of the victims.

Dr. Nizar Rashdan, director of the Daraa General Hospital, told The Associated Press that the airstrike hit an abandoned army barracks near a residential area killing three and wounding 25.

Yasser al-Sharaa was standing in front of his shop when the strike occurred. “We are civilians living here. The children were scared and the building was damaged,” al-Sharaa said. “Thank God my losses were material, with no human losses.”

The Israeli military said it had hit “command centers and military sites containing weapons and military vehicles belonging to the old Syrian regime, which (the new army) are trying to make reusable.”

Israel’s military has destroyed much of the now-dissolved Syrian army assets in hundreds of airstrikes after groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, whose roots comes from al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, captured Damascus following the ouster of Assad last December.

The commemoration of the March 18, 2011, shooting in Daraa that sparked the uprising against Assad’s government was held at the city's Omari Mosque where hundreds of people marched Tuesday chanting “Oh Gaza, we will support you to death.”

The body of a young man who was killed in Monday's airstrike was carried in a coffin draped in Syrian flag. During the funeral, Ahmad al-Masalmeh carried a banner that read in English, Arabic and Hebrew, “Netanyahu and Assad are two sides of the same coin.”

“Today marks the spark of the revolution that began in Daraa against Bashar Assad,” al-Masalmeh said. “Thank God we are victorious. We are united with the Palestinian people and we will always be God willing.”