Santa Barbara-based ShelterBox is responding to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza by sending in vital supplies through a partner in the Middle East.

ShelterBox will support thousands of displaced people with tarpaulins, rope and other essential items so people can make temporary repairs to their damaged homes.

The supplies will help keep the buildings watertight, and protect them from wet weather, and winter cold. The aid packets also include kitchen sets, water carriers and hygiene items like toothbrushes and diapers.

“The scale of the humanitarian needs is massive,” said Kerri Murray, president of ShelterBox USA. “With more than 1.8 million people internally displaced in Gaza, the large majority of the civilian population is in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

“People in Gaza are suffering from hunger, disease, and the cold.  Winter makes everything harder in an emergency.”

ShelterBox is partnering with Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), a non-political, non-religious, non-sectarian humanitarian relief organization based in London that ShelterBox partnered with previously for responses in Gaza.

“It is slow and unpredictable, with border crossings often closed at short notice,” Murray said. “The situation is complex, but we intend that our aid will reach people in the coming weeks via the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza.”

ShelterBox is also monitoring how a proposed ground offensive by Israel into Rafah would impact its planned response.

“Given Rafah’s proximity to the border with Egypt, we’d expect border closures to take place sporadically and at short notice,” Murray said. “This would severely affect the passage of aid, with trucks unable to move freely through the city.

“While ShelterBox is not sending in its iconic tents in the first wave of aid to Gaza, as the charity did in 2015, this may change.

“Although tents do not make up our initial aid package, we are looking at tents as an option for our second phase as they are now being prioritized by the shelter cluster – the group that look at shelter needs,” Murray said.

“When the aid package for the first phase of our work was designed and agreed upon, the recommendations were that tents were not a priority for cultural, historical and access reasons,” she said. “We needed to be sure that our aid package complied with all the guidelines and regulations.”