Heavy rains flood tents, collapse homes in Gaza and kill 6: health officials
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The storm that hit the Gaza Strip on Tuesday washed away hundreds of tents, destroyed homes sheltering families displaced by the two-year war and killed at least six people, local health officials said.
Doctors said five people, including two women and a girl, died when houses collapsed near Gaza City’s beach, while a one-year-old boy died of severe cold in a tent in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
Tents were torn from their poles, some flying several meters before crashing to the ground. Others lay crumpled in muddy puddles as families scrambled to salvage what they could.
Three of the dead were from the same family – Mohamed Hamouda, 72, his 15-year-old grandson and his daughter-in-law. They died when an 8-meter-high wall fell on their tent in an area along the Mediterranean coast of Gaza City, the hospital said. At least five others were injured in the fall.
A number of relatives gathered in the mortuary of the hospital on Tuesday to pray for the bodies placed in the health facilities before the funeral.
Their relatives arrived on Tuesday morning to remove the debris and start rebuilding the tents of the survivors.
“We didn’t realize what was happening until the wall started to collapse. Due to the speed and power of the wind, the wall fell on top of us and fell on three tents,” said Bassel Hamouda after the funeral of his relatives.
Residents tried to restore the remaining shelters, nailing down loose anchors and packing sandbags around the edges to prevent floodwaters from pouring inside.
In the three months since the ceasefire, the Israeli army has ordered the evacuation of almost two-thirds of Gaza, forcing its more than two million residents into the coastal strip where most of them live in makeshift tents or damaged buildings.
“The world has allowed us to see death in all its forms,” said Hamouda.
“It is true that the bombing may have stopped for a while, but we have seen all the causes of death in the world in the Gaza Strip.”
At least 31 winter-related deaths have been reported
The government press office in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 31 Palestinians have died since the start of the winter season from exposure to the cold or from the collapse of unsafe buildings damaged by previous Israeli strikes.
It said about 7,000 tents were damaged in the last 48 hours, most of them without any other place to stay.
Municipal and public defense officials said they were unable to withstand the storm due to fuel shortages and equipment damage. During the war, Israel destroyed hundreds of emergency vehicles, including tractors and water pumps.
In December, a UN report said 761 displacement areas home to about 850,000 people were at high risk of flooding, and thousands had moved in anticipation of heavy rain.
UN and Palestinian officials said at least 300,000 new tents were needed for the estimated 1.5 million people who remain displaced. Most of the existing shelters are dilapidated or made of thin plastic and cloth sheets.
“In Gaza, the winter weather adds to the suffering of families already pushed to the brink by more than two years of war,” UNRWA, the UN refugee agency in Palestine, said in a post on Tuesday.
“Flooding, freezing temperatures and damaged shelters are putting the homeless at new risk, while access to humanitarian aid remains severely delayed,” it added.
In a statement on Tuesday, Hamas urged negotiators of the Gaza ceasefire agreement that began in October to force Israel to allow the unconditional flow of aid, shelter, and reconstruction materials.
Israel says hundreds of trucks enter Gaza every day carrying food, medical supplies and shelter supplies. International aid agencies say supplies are not enough.
