Interview

Emergency in Gaza: between residual raids, storm Byron and endless humanitarian crisis

Mission chief Francesco Sacchi recounts the impact of cold and rain on the lives of the 1.3 million Gazawi camped in the strip amid tents and crumbling buildings

by Valentina Furlanetto

13 December 2025

Un palestinese attraversa una pozzanghera mentre passa davanti agli edifici distrutti durante le operazioni aeree e di terra israeliane a Gaza City (Foto AP/Abdel Kareem Hana) Stampa associata/Lapresse Solo Italia e Spagna

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

"Two days ago a rocket fell on a building a few hundred metres from our house. The raids are fewer, but they are still there. And in addition to the rockets there is the cold and the storm Byron'. Francesco Sacchi is 34 years old, a civil engineer and Emergency's head of mission in Gaza.

Where is it and what is the situation?

I am in Deir Al Balah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. It is not raining right now [Friday afternoon, 12 December], but it was pouring until last night and the forecast says it will start again on Monday. The situation is difficult. It is cold in the evenings, the passage of storm Byron has caused tents to flood and some buildings that were already unstable, because they were damaged by Israeli attacks, to collapse. Eighty per cent of the buildings in the Strip are destroyed. Many people live in unsafe houses and buildings, perhaps with cardboard or makeshift sacks instead of glass in the windows. The UN estimates that one million 300 thousand people in Gaza live in a precarious situation.

Le forti piogge aggravano le difficoltà degli sfollati di Gaza

After the truce, did the Gazawis who had been evacuated and forced to leave their homes return to their home towns?

During the January 2025 truce, Al Mawasy, where Emergency's clinic is located, had emptied of refugees, they had all returned to Gaza City. But now very few have left. Because they don't trust them anymore and don't know where to go back to. It is full of people sleeping on the beach, just a few metres from the sea and when it rains and the sea swells it is a disaster. People dig drainage channels, they try to stop the water with sacks, but it is useless.

And aid is coming in? Did you see a change after the truce?

Certainly there has been an increase in fuel and food supplies. But these are commercial supplies, supplying the markets, so only those who have the money to buy these goods have benefited. The problem is that even the money is not there, the banknotes are ruined. They are bought back by hand, some people have made a profession out of it.

Guerra Israele-Hamas, le immagini del 13 dicembre 2025
Photogallery20 foto

What about humanitarian aid?

Those, however, have not increased. Neither humanitarian supplies nor school materials. There are 650,000 children in Gaza who cannot go to school because they do not have books and exercise books. Other things that are not arriving are tents or material to build shelters, material for hospitals, hygiene articles. And also medicine supplies. Paracetamol, antibiotics, medicines for hypertension are missing.

Are there still bombings?

Less than before, clearly. But they have not stopped completely. Two days ago a rocket fell on a building a few hundred metres from our house, in the white zone, not the yellow zone, so in an area theoretically not subject to attack.

In your Emergency clinic, have the number of patient accesses per day decreased?

No, there are still about 250 admissions every day. Diseases related to rain and water pollution, such as gastroenteritis and hepatitis A, have increased.