“There are 1.5 million displaced people in Rafah, but there are no Pampers,” said the owner of a tailor shop.
Two stylized images of women in glamorous wedding dresses hang in front of a tailoring workshop in Rafah, but the workers inside have turned to producing diapers, one of the many necessities that are hard to find in wartime Gaza.
With most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people displaced by Israel’s military offensive, more than half of them are crowded in the Rafah area near the Egyptian border, where a shortage of diapers is making life miserable for babies and their parents.
“There are 1.5 million displaced people in Rafah and there are no Pampers,” said Yasser Abu Gharara, the owner of a tailoring workshop that currently produces diapers.
The shortage of diapers has pushed the price of a pack of diapers on the market to about 200 shekels ($55), which is too high for families who also struggle to get enough food, he said.
“If the banks were open, you would need a loan to buy Pampers,” he said, standing in a workshop where a row of women were using sewing machines to produce diapers.
Abu Gharara said they use recycled protective clothing dating back to the COVID-19 pandemic as material to make diapers, and he hopes the items will help families enduring harsh conditions.
“We’re not just talking about diapers for babies, but also diapers for the elderly and disabled,” he said.
For displaced people living in tent camps, a lack of diapers makes it even more difficult to keep babies and young children clean and dry every day.
Displaced mother Inas Al-Masry, who has twins and an older daughter who needs diapers, is using what looks like a pair of tiny shorts to protect one of her daughters. Made of transparent pink plastic bag. Babies.
The plastic shorts were so tight that when Almasri pulled them up, the baby boy lay crying on the ground in the tent.
She said she couldn’t afford the 180 or 190 shekels per pack of diapers because her twins would go through a pack in a week.
“How can I get another package after that week?” she said.
“Even if I put a quilt on the baby, I have to change it the next day. They all need clothes, but there are no clothes, no blankets for the children. We don’t have anything. We don’t even have mattresses, we are left on the street In the tent above.”
Displaced father Hany Subh said he searches the market every day for diapers but the prices are too high.
“Tell me, should we eat or buy Pampers?” he said.
According to Israel, the war was triggered by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostage.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and has responded with air and ground attacks that have killed more than 29,000 Palestinians and injured more than 69,000, according to Gaza health officials. The war has reduced much of the enclave to rubble and caused what the United Nations has called a humanitarian disaster.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
