Grand Imam of Al Azhar calls for urgent help for Gazans amid harsh climate conditions

CAIRO – 26 December 2025: Grad Imam of Al Azhar Ahmed Al Tayeb called upon the entire world to support and save lives of Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip amid the harsh climate conditions.

“What Gaza is enduring under these harsh climatic conditions constitutes a genuine test of humanity’s conscience. Innocent people who survived an aggression and genocide beyond human endurance are now confronting relentless rain, violent storms, and biting cold, while children lack even the most basic protection against the cruelty of winter,” said Grad Imam of Al Azhar Ahmed Al Tayeb.

“This harrowing scene places the entire world before an urgent moral and humanitarian responsibility: either true solidarity that saves lives, or complicity in the deepening of their pain and wounds,” the Grand Imam added.

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that the occupation is weaponizing winter against Gaza’s residents by maintaining the blockade and preventing the entry of temporary shelters.

“Hundreds of damaged homes are at imminent risk of collapse as weather conditions continue to deteriorate,” the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said. Civilians are being forced to choose between two life-threatening options: homes at risk of collapse or tents that provide no protection from cold and rain.

The policy of “shelter deprivation” is part of a systematic strategy of forced displacement and the denial of the population’s right to adequate housing.

It added that an urgent appeal is directed to the international community and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing to pressure the occupation to immediately lift the blockade, as its continuation during winter constitutes willful killing.