Heavy winter rains and strong winds have brought new dangers to displaced Palestinians in a Gaza devastated by Israel.
Severe weather conditions are bringing further misery to displaced Palestinians in Gaza, who have already suffered relentless bombardment, siege and loss in Israel’s genocidal war for more than two years, as Israel continues to block critical shelter and aid supplies into the territory.
Flimsy tents were flooded and makeshift camps engulfed in mud on Monday following heavy winter rains lashing the enclave in recent days.
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The harsh conditions have added to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom are reduced to sheltering in tents and other makeshift structures since Israel’s war destroyed an estimated 80 percent of the buildings there.
Officials are warning that severe conditions also bring new dangers, with the threat of disease and illness as overwhelmed and damaged sewage systems contaminate floodwaters, and the risk that damaged buildings could collapse amid heavy rainfall.
At least 15 people, including babies, have died this month from hypothermia following the rains and plunging temperatures, according to the authorities in Gaza.
Two-month-old baby Arkan Firas Musleh was the latest infant to die Monday as a result of the extreme cold. Gaza’s Ministry of Health also announced the death of a Palestinian man in a building collapse onto a tent in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City.
On Sunday, a 30-year-old woman was killed when a partially destroyed wall collapsed onto her tent in the Remal neighbourhood to the west of Gaza City amid fierce winds, media Arabic reported.
Officials have warned people not to shelter in damaged buildings, but the tents offer limited protection from the heavy rain and no real protection against flooding.
Contaminated floodwater
Reporting from Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, where most of the buildings have been reduced to rubble by Israeli attacks, media’s Hind Khoudary said the heavy rains had created deep puddles and thick mud that was difficult to pass in places.
“People are struggling to walk in those mud puddles,” she said. “These are not only water, but it’s also sewage, rubbish.”
A team of municipal workers were trying to pump sewage from the overwhelmed network, amid reports of flooded tents from residents.
“Families are saying that sewage water has been coming into their tents,” she said.
Calls for aid deliveries
Aid groups have called for the international community to pressure Israel to lift restrictions on life-saving aid deliveries into the territory, which they say are falling far short of the amount called for under the US-brokered ceasefire.
“More rain. More human misery, despair and death,” Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA, the top United Nations group overseeing aid in Gaza, wrote on social media on Sunday.
“Harsh winter weather is compounding more than two years of suffering. People in Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents and among ruins.”
There was “nothing inevitable about this”, he added. “Aid supplies are not being allowed in at the scale required.”
More Israeli attacks
Meanwhile, despite the ceasefire that came into effect on October 10, Israeli attacks on Palestinians have continued in Gaza.
Three Palestinians were injured on Monday when Israeli forces targeted the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza, a medical source told media Arabic.
Witnesses said the attack happened in an area from which Israeli forces had withdrawn under the ceasefire agreement.
Witnesses also reported an Israeli air raid on the eastern areas of the Bureij camp in central Gaza, artillery shelling east of Rafah and further Israeli attacks east of Gaza City, media Arabic reported.
A 20-point plan proposed by United States President Donald Trump in September called for an initial truce followed by steps towards a wider peace. So far, as part of the first phase, there has been the exchange of captives held in Gaza and prisoners in Israeli jails, and a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave. However, it still occupies almost half of the territory.
However, Israeli attacks have not stopped, while humanitarian aid flows into the territory have not been what was promised.
Since the truce went into effect, more than 414 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,100 wounded in ceasefire violations, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
