{"id":588,"date":"2026-06-07T04:37:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T04:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=588"},"modified":"2026-06-07T04:37:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T04:37:57","slug":"palestinians-suffer-from-lack-of-proper-toilets-across-gazas-vast-tent-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=588","title":{"rendered":"Palestinians suffer from lack of proper toilets across Gaza\u2019s vast tent cities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Khan Younis, Gaza Strip (AP) \u2014 In their bare-bones tent in southern Gaza, Mostafa Shaaban built his family\u2019s makeshift toilet behind a curtain in a corner. He dug a shallow pit in the sandy soil, poured a concrete slab around it, fixed a bottomless bucket over the hole, then topped it off with a battered, plastic toilet seat.<\/p>\n

Read more Hegseth invokes immigration and \u2018invasion\u2019 in D-Day speech in France<\/a><\/p>\n

It reeks with a foul odor and buzzes with flies and mosquitoes only a few feet from where they sleep and prepare meals. Every week, Shaaban has to dig the sewage sludge out of the pit. But at least it\u2019s more private than the fetid communal latrines used by hundreds of other people in their sprawling tent camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not want the kids and my wife to use any public toilet. It is humiliating,\u201d said the 38-year-old Shaaban, who was driven from his home city of Rafah<\/span> by Israeli forces two years ago and eventually settled in a tent camp in Khan Younis.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe situation is revolting,\u201d he said of having the toilet inside the tent, \u201cbut at least it has more dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is not a single proper toilet across the vast tent cities<\/span> housing most of Gaza\u2019s 1.7 million Palestinians left homeless by the war<\/span>. Displaced families have largely been left on their own to dig their own latrines, some shared by extended families. <\/p>\n

At communal camp toilets, men, women and children wait in long lines then do their business behind a thin cloth or sheet of metal separating them from the crowd of strangers outside. Women fear walking to the communal toilets at night.<\/p>\n

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The result is a hygienic nightmare as horrible smells drift among the tightly packed tents and pools of sewage collect from leaking cesspits or from people dumping the contents of their latrines. More than 80% of the sewage pumping stations in Gaza have collapsed under Israel\u2019s bombardment and offensives over the past 2 \u00bd years, rights groups say.<\/p>\n

Some aid groups have carried out projects to improve family toilets, but they have been small scale and supplies are limited. It remains far from certain when reconstruction of Gaza will begin. <\/p>\n

Read more Israeli troops kill 7-month-old baby in West Bank, Palestinian officials say<\/a><\/p>\n

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The U.S.-backed official overseeing the ceasefire in place since October<\/span> has blamed Hamas for holding up the process by failing to reach an agreement on disarmament. The ceasefire deal calls for the entry of major construction and repair equipment into Gaza even before disarmament, and so far little has entered. <\/p>\n

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