Summer heat deepens hardship for Gaza's tent-dwelling families.

As heat wave is showing no signs of letting up in Gaza, thousands of displaced families living in worn-out makeshift tents are facing increasingly harsh conditions. Muhammad and his family have been displaced since October 2023 and still live in a tent. Every morning at dawn since the start of this summer, he leads his family out of the tent. He is well aware that their flimsy shelter, made of worn canvas and dark plastic sheets, rapidly heats up like a greenhouse. While the daytime peak outdoor temperature in the Gaza has dropped to around 30 degrees Celsius, the temperature inside the tent can reach nearly 40 degrees Celsius at the same time. To cool themselves down, Muhammad's family sit on the bare ground outside their tent, each fanning themselves repeatedly with a piece of cardboard. When the heat intensifies, adults place their children in a simple wooden basin and splash water over their bodies for relief. However, the humanitarian plight of displaced people in Gaza continues to worsen amid Israel's strict restrictions on the entry of drinking water, daily necessities and temporary housing reconstruction supplies. Under such harsh conditions, the sea has become their only option to escape the relentless heat. Amid the ongoing conflict, most of Gaza's main water supply and wastewater treatment facilities have been destroyed and remain largely unrepaired. Massive volumes of raw sewage flow daily from broken pipelines and tent camps directly into the sea. Shotlist: Gaza City, Gaza Strip - Recent: 1. Various of people cooling themselves; 2. People heading towards seaside; 3. Various of sea, beach, people on seaside; 4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Muhammad, displaced person (full name not given) (starting with shot 1): "We often go to the seaside and sit there for an hour before heading back to the tent. We repeat this same grueling routine every day. I swim in the sea and splash water on myself after getting out to cool down, but the intense heat soon returns."; 5. Muhammad's father resting; 6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Muhammad's father (name not given) (starting with shot 5/ending with shots 7-8): "We have nowhere else to escape the heat except the beach. But the seawater is clean sometimes and contaminated with sewage and wastewater at other times. Yesterday I took the children to the beach, yet we only stayed there for 10 minutes and left because I found the seawater there was polluted."; 7. People walking; 8. Tents. [Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]