Cruel winter 'Inadequate' tents given to displaced Palestinians

Thousands of tents supplied by China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to shelter displaced Palestinians in Gaza offer limited protection against rain and wind, an assessment compiled by shelter specialists in the devastated territory has revealed.

- By Jason Burke JERUSALEM and Seham Tantesh GAZA

The assessment will undermine claims that Palestinians in Gaza are being supplied with adequate shelter. Fierce storms in recent weeks blew down or damaged thousands of tents, affecting at least 235,000 people, according to UN estimates.

Prepared by the Palestine Shelter Cluster, which coordinates the activities of nearly 700 non-government organisations in Palestine, the assessment found that new tents housing hundreds of thousands of people would “likely need to be replaced”.

“The fabric [of the Egyptian tents] tears easily as sewing quality is poor,” it reported. “The fabric is not waterproof. Other issues include small windows, weak structure, no flooring.”

Tents from Saudi Arabia and China were criticised. Those supplied by Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations were judged to have met UN experts’ specifications.

The findings - based on 9,000 responses to a poll on social media, observations “from partners on the ground” and “community feedback” - will raise questions about the quality of aid supplied to Gaza by countries that have been favoured by Israeli authorities seeking to bypass the UN.