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Gaza- With great joy, Rehan Sharab, a thirty-year-old Palestinian woman, picked up a hook and balls of colored wool from the rubble of her destroyed house in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, as a last resort to confront the cold of winter.
It took long hours for Rihan (30 years old) to remove the rubble, stone after stone, and to look under it for a long time as if she was searching for a “precious treasure,” until she found her hook and balls of wool, where she practiced “the art of crochet” and making heavy winter clothes with hand-loom.
“I actually found a treasure,” Rehan said to Al Jazeera Net, as she was busy spinning pieces of winter clothing for her two children, Rakan (11 years old) and Toto (8 years old), and displaced them with only the clothes that covered their bodies, from her family’s home, which the occupation and dozens of neighboring homes turned into piles. From the rubble, during the ground invasion of the city late last year.
Emergency alternatives
Rehan resorted to digging for tools for spinning and knitting wool under the rubble of her destroyed house after she became tired of searching the markets for a replacement for it and did not find it, in addition to the lack of winter clothes to warm the bodies of her two children with the arrival of winter.
Winter clothes are not available in the markets of Khan Yunis and the southern areas of the Gaza Strip, as the occupation has prevented their entry through the only commercial crossing at Kerem Shalom, since the outbreak of war following the attack on October 7 of last year.
Rehan says that clothes are scarce in the markets and their prices are very high, and do not suit the majority of people who are exhausted by war and have lost their sources of livelihood and savings.
This woman comes from a famous family in the south of the Gaza Strip, and lost a number of her relatives as martyrs, in addition to the widespread destruction of the family’s homes and agricultural lands. She views displacement as the greatest tragedy of war, as she lacks privacy, security, and the ability to raise her two children and provide for their necessary needs.
She says, “We lost a lot during this frenzied war… It is a harsh and bitter experience, during which we lost thousands of lives, our homes and property were destroyed, and the siege is suffocating us to the point that we struggle to provide the food that satisfies our children's hunger, and the clothes that cover our bodies and their bodies.”
War options
Before the outbreak of war, Rehan used to knit wool and make various types of winter clothing, which she promoted through electronic marketing through a special page she created on social media platforms.
In light of the severe clothing crisis afflicting Gazans and hundreds of thousands of displaced people in tents and shelter centers, Rehan received messages on her page from Palestinians residing abroad and relief agencies, asking her to make clothes as gifts for their families and relatives, or to distribute them free of charge to those in need as part of charitable initiatives.
Rehan is facing a crisis due to the scarcity of wool in the markets, and she says that what is available is of poor quality and its prices are exaggerated, many times what they were before the outbreak of the war.
The war forces Gazans to search for innovative options and means to overcome the complex crises that afflict them, and among them stands out the “Needle and Thread Worker” initiative, launched by Nidaa Aita, a refugee from the Beit Lahia project, who currently resides in a tent in the Mawasi Khan Yunis area after many displacement stations.
This workshop recycles blankets (covers) and turns them into jackets and winter clothes. Nidaa (31 years old) launched this project last July, and she told Al Jazeera Net, “I realized that we are heading towards a severe crisis in the winter as the occupation continues to prevent the entry of winter clothes.” “And people losing their clothes in their homes that they were displaced from, or those that were bombed and destroyed.”
Nidaa, who is behind this workshop, does not aim for profit, and says that its goal is humanitarian. A team of 12 women and 7 men works with it, and they are used according to need and work pressure. It is satisfied with a small profit margin, in order to help the team members support their families, among them are unpaid volunteers. A reward.
Needle and thread
Nidaa is struggling to provide blankets, the prices of which have risen at an unprecedented rate. Displaced people come to her with their blankets asking to recycle them as winter clothes for their children, and she is satisfied with a small fee for that, not more than 30 shekels (less than 10 dollars).
She does not receive anything from other cases that describe her living conditions as miserable, and her needs are met for free. The most recent of them is a displaced woman whose husband has been missing for months. She has 3 children and is unable to provide clothes to keep them warm. Nidaa says that the “workshop tent” has become a destination for women who have been destroyed by war, and who cannot find anything to cover them. It contains the bodies of their children to keep them warm, especially during the night hours, when the cold is severe in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi.
The “Needle and Thread” team works manually, due to the complete blackout in the Strip since the outbreak of the war, and the lack of fuel to operate alternative energy means. Volunteer Rahaf Qudeih (21 years old) tells Al Jazeera Net that manual work is hard and takes a lot of time and effort.
The operator has a single sewing machine that runs on motor energy, generated by the rotation of bicycle pedals connected to the machine’s belt, and is operated by a tailor who completes the required piece of clothing after taking the measurements and cutting the blanket fabric manually, according to Rahaf.
This same volunteer is displaced with her family (11 members) from the border town of Khuza’a, east of the city of Khan Yunis. They live in a tent in the Al-Mawasi area. They were displaced from their home on the first day of the outbreak of war with only the clothes that covered their bodies, and when they returned to it, they found it in ruins.
The majority of the 2.2 million residents of the small coastal strip are suffering from a sharp deterioration in their living conditions. The war has forced more than 85% of them to flee their homes, and the occupation is increasing their suffering with a stifling siege and depriving them of the basic needs of life, according to statements issued by international and human rights bodies. .
