Floods, violent storms deepen suffering in war-torn Gaza

A violent winter storm is compounding the suffering of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip which has largely been destroyed in the past two years of fighting.

Many of the tents where people are sheltering from the cold and rain have been flooded, and some were torn apart by gusts of wind, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Monday.

Tents located near the beach were destroyed by high waves, according to an Al Jazeera report.

Local civil defence authorities said a woman and a child were killed.

“The water entered our tent before sunrise. Within minutes, everything was flooded – the mattresses, the blankets and our children’s clothes,” Khaled Abu Labda told dpa.

“We spent the rest of the night standing in the cold because we had nowhere else to go,” said Abu Labda, 41, from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

Aisha al-Najjar said, “We survived months of bombing, but now the rain is finishing us off.”

Damaged buildings in danger of collapsing

Palestinians, weakened by war, hunger and displacement, have sought shelter in the buildings that are still standing. But they are in constant danger of the structures collapsing, after being damaged by Israeli bombardment in the course of the conflict.

Gazans have faced repeated storms since early December. Aid organizations criticize Israel for blocking the transport of residential containers or other mobile shelters to the Gaza Strip. Gaza’s emergency coordinators estimate some 200,000 are in need of shelter.

Most of Gaza’s 2 million inhabitants are exhausted by repeated flights, bombings, hunger and lack of health care.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, after the war triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Some 1,200 people in Israel were killed and 250 abducted.

The Gaza health authorities, controlled by Hamas, say at least 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since then.