‘Afraid to Sleep’: Nights Bring Fresh Horrors in War-Torn Gaza

Displaced Palestinians sleep in a tent on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr festival, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, at a camp beside a street in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on April 10, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians sleep in a tent on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr festival, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, at a camp beside a street in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on April 10, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
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‘Afraid to Sleep’: Nights Bring Fresh Horrors in War-Torn Gaza

Displaced Palestinians sleep in a tent on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr festival, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, at a camp beside a street in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on April 10, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians sleep in a tent on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr festival, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, at a camp beside a street in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on April 10, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)

As the sun sets over Gaza, displaced Palestinians in plastic tents are plunged into darkness, tormented by the buzzing of Israeli drones, constant artillery fire and fear they may not survive the night.

"Mother, let me sleep in your arms, I don't want to die," said six-year-old Yasmine, clinging to her mother in their small, make-shift shelter.

"My children are afraid to sleep," said Safa Abu Yasin. "I'm afraid for their lives too."

Abu Yasin and her four daughters are in Al-Mawasi, an area Israeli forces have said is a humanitarian zone.

Despite repeatedly shrinking this designated safe area, more and more displaced Palestinians continue to cram into it, seeking refuge that has become increasingly elusive.

The majority of Gaza's 2.4 million people have fled their homes at least once during the war, now in its 11th month.

Abu Yasin is often wide awake throughout the night, trying to soothe her baby girl Loujain, born in April, who repeatedly wakes up crying.

"It is very difficult to calm her," said Abu Yasin.

"We want her to feel safe, but I don't even have a cradle... for her to feel comfortable."

"Come to sleep, come to sleep," she softly sings an old Levantine lullaby that tells children that a bird will come to watch over them as they sleep.

Her other daughters complain about the thin mattress they all share on the floor, often waking up when they bump into each other.

- Sleeping in the rubble -

"I miss my pillow," said Farah Sharshara, 32, from her tent in the central area of Deir al-Balah, once a thriving district but now reduced to rubble by Israeli bombardment.

She rarely takes a shower due to the lack of water, while privacy in the tents is simply nonexistent.

"You always have to adapt to other people's ways," she said.

"There are those who snore, those who wake up screaming, crying in fear, and then there are the insomniacs who just chat and disturb everyone," Sharshara said.

One displaced man, Rami, describes his six-by-four-meter tent in which 27 members of his extended family sleep.

"Before the war each of us had our own room" in their respective homes, he said, giving only his first name.

"Now we all sleep on a plastic mat, a blanket and a foam mattress," said Rami, who has been displaced several times during the war.

In a territory where the United Nations estimated in May that over 55 percent of buildings had been completely or partially destroyed, tents -- some provided by international organizations, others purchased at high prices -- have become the most common form of shelter for the displaced.

Just days after the war broke out on October 7, several aid groups distributed sleeping kits containing essential materials for resting at night.

But now they say much-needed materials for repairs and shelter construction are not being allowed in by Israeli authorities, who control all points of access to the besieged territory.

Without other options, more and more Gazans now sleep in the rubble of destroyed buildings, or on the streets, where flies and insects swarm amid stinking sewage.

Palestinians can often be seen rummaging through the debris, while there are reports of many breaking into empty homes to get their hands on whatever furniture they can to use as firewood for cooking.

- Psychological threat -

"People frequently lack the basic necessities for quality sleep: privacy, temperature control, darkness, and quiet," Eman Alakhras, a psychologist for the Doctors of the World aid group, told AFP.

Many, especially the sick, request sleeping pills, she said.

"There are those who cannot sleep in order not to die, as many have died in front of their eyes and they feel that they must stay awake so that they can escape in case of danger."

Prolonged sleep deprivation increases the risk of post-traumatic stress syndrome, cognitive disorders, and developmental delays in children, she added.

The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel's retaliatory military offensive has so far killed at least 40,139 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry of the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details of civilian and militant deaths.

"Nothing is the same as before," said Mohammed Abdel Majid, who was displaced along with his family of 30.

Before the war, the family had a roof over their heads.

"Today, all we have is a tent, be it the freezing winter or under the scorching sun in the summer."



Things to Know About the UN Special Rapporteur Sanctioned by the US

Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, talks to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 11, 2023. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)
Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, talks to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 11, 2023. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)
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Things to Know About the UN Special Rapporteur Sanctioned by the US

Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, talks to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 11, 2023. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)
Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, talks to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 11, 2023. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)

A UN special rapporteur was sanctioned by the United States over her work as an independent investigator scrutinizing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, a high-profile role in a network of experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Francesca Albanese is among the experts chosen by the 47-member council in Geneva. They report to the body as a means of monitoring human rights records in various countries and the global observance of specific rights.

Special rapporteurs don't represent the UN and have no formal authority. Still, their reports can step up pressure on countries, while their findings inform prosecutors at the International Criminal Court and other venues working on transnational justice cases.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement announcing sanctions against Albanese on Wednesday that she “has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel and the West.”

Albanese said Thursday that she believed the sanctions were “calculated to weaken my mission.” She said at a news conference in Slovenia that “I’ll continue to do what I have to do.”

She questioned why she had been sanctioned — “for having exposed a genocide? For having denounced the system? They never challenged me on the facts.”

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, called for a “prompt reversal” of the US sanctions. He added that “even in face of fierce disagreement, UN member states should engage substantively and constructively, rather than resort to punitive measures.”

Prominent expert

Albanese, an Italian human rights lawyer, has developed an unusually high profile as the special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, a post she has held since May 2022.

Last week, she named several large US companies among those aiding Israel as it fights a war with Hamas in Gaza, saying her report “shows why Israel’s genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many.”

Israel has long had a rocky relationship with the Human Rights Council, Albanese and previous rapporteurs, accusing them of bias. It has refused to cooperate with a special “Commission of Inquiry” established following a 2021 conflict with Hamas.

Albanese has been vocal about what she describes as a genocide by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel and the US, which provides military support to its close ally, have strongly denied the accusation.

‘Nothing justifies what Israel is doing’

In recent weeks, Albanese issued a series of letters urging other countries to pressure Israel, including through sanctions, to end its deadly bombardment of the Gaza Strip. She also has been a strong supporter of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for allegations of war crimes.

Albanese said at a news conference last year that she has “always been attacked since the very beginning of my mandate,” adding that criticism wouldn't force her to step down.

“It just infuriates me, it pisses me off, of course it does, but then it creates even more pressure not to step back,” she said. “Human rights work is first and foremost amplifying the voice of people who are not heard.”

She added that “of course, one condemned Hamas — how not to condemn Hamas? But at the same time, nothing justifies what Israel is doing.”

Albanese became an affiliate scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University in 2015, and has taught and lectured in recent years at various universities in Europe and the Middle East. She also has written publications and opinions on Palestinian issues.

Albanese worked between 2003 and 2013 with arms of the UN, including the legal affairs department of the UN Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, and the UN human rights office, according to her biography on the Georgetown website.

She was in Washington between 2013 and 2015 and worked for an American nongovernmental organization, Project Concern International, as an adviser on protection issues during an Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Member of a small group

Albanese is one of 14 current council-appointed experts on specific countries and territories.

Special rapporteurs, who document rights violations and abuses, usually have renewable mandates of one year and generally work without the support of the country under investigation. There are rapporteurs for Afghanistan, Belarus, Burundi, Cambodia, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, Russia and Syria.

There also are three country-specific “independent experts,” a role more focused on technical assistance, for the Central African Republic, Mali and Somalia.

Additionally, there are several dozen “thematic mandates,” which task experts or working groups to analyze phenomena related to particular human rights. Those include special rapporteurs on “torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” the human rights of migrants, the elimination of discrimination against people affected by leprosy and the sale, sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children.