Floods Damage 70,000 Tents in Gaza as Winter Sets In

Gaza’s Government Media Office estimated initial losses from the destroyed and flooded tents at $3 million. It said walls in dozens of homes had collapsed, causing injuries, and warned that more buildings could collapse. The territory’s civil defence service received 1,500 distress calls from displaced residents, NBC News reported. Three abandoned houses collapsed without causing injuries, the service said.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says about 950,000 displaced people live in areas exposed to flooding; more than 400,000 are in locations considered at high risk. Some 44,000 Palestinians are living in structurally unsafe buildings, while more than 4,000 buildings are estimated to need full or partial demolition because of damage from Israeli air strikes. About 294,250 families need shelter assistance before winter, but available supplies meet only 18 percent of those needs.

Palestinian Health Minister Dr. Majed Abu Ramadan urged the international community, the United Nations and aid organizations to intervene. He warned that health and environmental conditions could deteriorate catastrophically and that disease risks would grow without a rapid, comprehensive response.

Residents described trying to keep water out of tents and retrieve children from flooded shelters. Mansour al-Sakni, 33, told Middle East Eye that his family woke surrounded by water, with children crying. “We do not want to die from the bombing or the cold,” he said. “Enough. Have mercy on us.” Gaza resident Olfat Magdoub said rain had soaked mattresses again, forcing her family to sleep on the ground. Gaza’s media office blamed Israel for the disaster; Ramy Abdul, chairman of Euro-Med Monitor, said the siege was preventing even the recovery of bodies from beneath rubble.