Heavy rains have flooded tent encampments of displaced Palestinians throughout the Gaza Strip, including distress to communities already devastated by 13 months of battle, as Israeli forces stepped up assaults within the enclave.
Downpours in a single day inundated tents and in some locations washed away the plastic and fabric shelters utilized by displaced individuals within the enclave, most of whom have been uprooted on several occasions in the course of the battle between Israel and Hamas.
Some positioned water buckets on the bottom to guard mats from leaks and dug trenches to empty water away from their tents.
“We left the north and survived the bombings. We left after the siege. However now the rain and chilly are killing us. I’ve been sick for 3 days,” Ahmad, a displaced resident of Jabalia, northern Gaza, instructed Al Jazeera in a tent camp in Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza Metropolis.
“We have been affected by the rain. Our youngsters have been soaked. Our garments acquired moist and we have now nothing to guard ourselves, simply the tent,” stated Um Mohammad Marouf, a displaced Beit Lahiya resident.
Many tents used within the early phases of Israel’s battle in Gaza have now worn out and do not supply safety. The value of recent tents and plastic sheeting has additionally shot up past the technique of displaced households.
On Monday, Gaza’s Authorities Media Workplace stated in an announcement that about 10,000 tents have been both washed away or broken as a result of the storm, interesting for worldwide assistance to supply displaced households with tents to defend themselves in opposition to the rain and chilly.
“Based on authorities area evaluation groups, 81 % of the displaced individuals’ tents are not usable. Out of 135,000 tents, 110,000 are utterly worn out and urgently want a substitute,” it stated.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud stated many tent websites are close to the coast and aren’t designed to face up to “these horrific circumstances”, particularly as colder climate approaches.
“The rising tide has broken many of those tents, leaving individuals with little hope and no dry garments to guard themselves,” he stated.
The United Nations Reduction and Works Company for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has warned that half 1,000,000 individuals throughout the besieged enclave are in danger in areas hit by flooding.
“The state of affairs will solely worsen with each drop of rain, each bomb, each strike,” the company stated on X.
In the meantime on Monday, Israeli assaults intensified throughout the enclave.
In Rafah within the southern Gaza Strip, an Israeli air assault killed not less than 4 individuals, medics stated, whereas tanks deepened their incursions in Beit Hanoon, Beit Lahiya, and Jabalia – the most important of the enclave’s eight historic refugee camps.
Medics stated seven Palestinian individuals had been additionally killed by two Israeli air assaults in Jabalia.
Residents in Gaza stated Israeli planes additionally dropped new leaflets on Beit Lahiya ordering remaining residents to go away from the northern metropolis for the south, saying the realm would come under assault and offering them a map.
Palestinian individuals say Israel seems decided to depopulate the realm completely to create a buffer zone alongside the northern fringe of Gaza. Israel has repeatedly denied this accusation.
Israel’s battle in Gaza has killed not less than 44,235 Palestinians and wounded 104,638 since October 7, 2023.
An estimated 1,139 individuals have been killed in Israel in the course of the Hamas-led assaults that day and more than 200 have been taken captive.
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