Gaza Herald – Human rights and housing experts in Gaza are calling for the immediate entry of caravans and temporary shelter units to protect displaced women, children, older people and people with disabilities, as hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families remain without adequate housing.
Around 250,000 families are still living in tents across Gaza, according to figures presented during a workshop organized by Gaza’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs. Around 60% of those tents are reportedly worn out, leaving families exposed to harsh living conditions and offering little protection or privacy.
Experts stressed that temporary housing must prioritize women-headed households, pregnant and breastfeeding women, children, elderly people and people with disabilities. Safe shelter, they said, must provide basic privacy, physical protection, access to clean water and sanitation, and proximity to healthcare, education and food.
For displaced Palestinian women, the demand for caravans is not simply about finding a roof. It is about restoring a minimum level of safety and dignity after years of displacement, destruction and loss. Experts emphasized that women themselves should also have a role in designing and managing temporary shelter sites.
Legal specialists argued that providing temporary shelter units for civilians in need constitutes humanitarian assistance and emergency accommodation protected under international humanitarian and human rights law. They also pointed to international protections afforded to women, including provisions under CEDAW, UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
The workshop called for a gradual transition from emergency tents to dignified temporary housing and, ultimately, permanent homes. Experts stressed that caravans must never become a substitute for reconstruction, but rather a temporary lifeline while Gaza’s destroyed homes, infrastructure and neighborhoods are rebuilt.
They also called for the removal of rubble and unexploded ordnance, the rehabilitation of dangerous buildings and damaged infrastructure, and the establishment of a Palestinian body dedicated to reconstruction. For Gaza’s displaced families, the demand is simple: safe shelter now, and the right to return to secure, permanent homes, not endless displacement in broken tents.
