For Families Sheltering in Nylon Tents, Gaza’s Scorching Summer Is Unbearable

The intense heat is compounded as swarms of flies and mosquitoes infest the tents due to an absence of sewage services.

By Shahad Ali ,TRUTHOUT Published June 16, 2025

Before the war began, summer in Gaza was a season of joy. Families thrived on creating small moments of happiness, even amid daily electricity cuts and the suffocating siege. Many loved to flock to the beach or spend time at the water chalets, hoping to find some refreshing relief from the scorching sun.

They would sit beneath wide umbrellas, spread blankets across the golden beach sand, and share ice cream along with slices of mango and watermelon, all while watching their children swim and splash in the sea. These simple gatherings brought beauty to the season and made it something to look forward to each year.

However, the latest Israeli war on Gaza has turned even these modest pleasures into distant memories. It has erased any sense of joy from summer, transforming it into another season of suffering — marked by starvation, displacement, thirst, and daily killings.

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Gaza now in “stage of mass death”

The following is from the news roundup during the 12 June livestream. Watch the entire episode here.

Israeli forces carried out massacres across the Gaza Strip this week, killing 497 Palestinians and wounding nearly 2,100 between 5 June and 11 June, targeting Palestinian men, women and children in residential buildings, school shelters, tent shelters, and at so-called aid distribution points.

Israel killed at least 123 Palestinians between Tuesday and Wednesday alone, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza.

Nearly half of those deaths recorded in those 24 hours were people killed while trying to retrieve meager parcels of aid at the US-Israeli distribution points.

Since the shadowy, so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began its operations two weeks ago, the health ministry says that more than 220 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,800 injured while trying to obtain food.

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Palestinians mourn loved ones killed in Israeli drone attacks on tent shelters in Khan Younis, Gaza, 10 June. 

Moaz Abu TahaAPA images

American Security Contractor Unloads On US-Israeli ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’

Editor’s note: Given the value of this information and perspective, Zeteo granted the author's request for anonymity in order to speak freely without intimidation or fear of retaliation.

I am one of hundreds of security contractors who have been in Gaza to facilitate aid under the new US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation project.

And it’s all bullshit.

I joined what sounded like a good mission, with good pay – through a company called UG Solutions. We were given little information.

I was told I got the job just days before we were set to depart. It was very last minute.

After arriving in Washington, DC, on May 16, we received a slightly more detailed brief. We were going to provide security for aid sites in Gaza. It was said again and again: “If you're here to get your gun on, then pack your shit and go home, because that's not what we're here for. We're here to help.” I was happy with that idea.

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Update on Mahmoud Khalil via Democracy Now!

The Trump administration has refused to release Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, in an apparent violation of a court order.

The government claimed Friday that the court order left room for Khalil to remain detained for reasons other than Secretary of State Marco Rubio's claim that the activist is a threat to U.S. "foreign policy."

A federal judge ruled Wednesday the Trump administration cannot keep the Columbia University graduate locked up over his political advocacy and that his continued detention is causing Khalil “irreparable harm.”

Khalil — a green card holder — has been locked up in a Louisiana immigration prison for three months, missing the birth and first weeks of his newborn son’s life.