Heavy rains flooded camps of displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Monday, adding to seasonal winter misery in communities already devastated by 13 months of war. At the same time, Israeli forces intensified attacks on the enclave.
Torrential rains overnight flooded tents and, in some places, washed away plastic and fabric shelters used by Gaza’s displaced people, many of whom were displaced multiple times during the conflict between Israel and Hamas militants.
Some camps near the beach in Khan Younis were flooded, and some tents were washed away by high waves.
“The sea took my little daughter, thank God we were able to rescue her,” said Mariam Abu Saqer, who lived in a tent on the beach before it was flooded by sea water.
“Where should we go? Everywhere we go, they tell us there is no space,” she said.
Some placed buckets of water on the ground to protect the mats from leaks and dug ditches to drain water from their tents.
Many tents used at the start of the war are worn out and no longer offer protection, but the price of new tents and plastic sheeting has soared beyond what displaced families could afford.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said thousands of displaced people were affected by seasonal flooding and demanded new tents and caravans from aid donors to protect them.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said in a post on X that the first rains of winter mean even more suffering.
“Around half a million people are at risk in flood areas,” he said. “The situation will only get worse with every drop of rain, every bomb, every attack.”
Meanwhile, Israeli military attacks intensified across the enclave.
Palestinians say Israel appears determined to permanently depopulate the area to create a buffer zone along Gaza’s northern edge, an accusation Israel denies.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,200 people and displaced nearly the entire population at least once, according to Gaza officials, while reducing large swaths of the narrow coastal territory to rubble.
The war broke out in response to an attack by Hamas-led militants on October 7, 2023, in which gunmen killed around 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli counts.
This content was originally published in Floods flood tents of displaced people in Gaza amid Israeli attacks on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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