The Civil Defense Service in the Gaza Strip confirmed that its crews recovered five bodies and transported them to the hospital, following a sand collapse on a tent housing displaced people in the central governorate of the Strip, while the search is still ongoing for missing persons.
The dead appear to belong to one family that was displaced from the town of Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip, to the Central Governorate, according to what the BBC’s correspondent for Gaza affairs, Adnan Al-Barsh, reported.
This comes after the heavy rains and strong winds that struck the Gaza Strip on Saturday night caused the sinking of tents and the destruction of displacement camps, leaving tens of thousands homeless, and exacerbating the suffering of families who have been residing in worn out tents for more than three years.
The fourth winter has arrived in the Gaza Strip, with the horizon blocked in finding appropriate solutions that would protect the population from the repercussions of these recurring disasters, amid mounting fears of casualties resulting from the collapse of more buildings that are likely to collapse.
The Civil Defense Service said that at least three buildings, which were housing displaced people, collapsed on Saturday, along with the collapse of dozens of walls, due to heavy rains and strong winds.
For its part, the Ministry of Social Development warned of the possibility of repeated deaths of children due to freezing and extreme cold, as happened last winter, and appealed to human rights and international bodies to take urgent action to stop the humanitarian catastrophe before the expected storms intensify.
These developments come in light of the extremely difficult humanitarian conditions experienced by tens of thousands of Palestinians whose homes were destroyed by Israeli forces during the war on the Gaza Strip, and who were forced to reside in temporary tents made of nylon and thin fabric, lacking the most basic elements of protection from rain, wind, and extreme cold.
The number of tents housing displaced families in the various governorates of the Gaza Strip is estimated at about 270,000 tents, while more than 400,000 displaced people live in extremely dangerous locations, exposed to floods and rainwater accumulation, or near the seashore, which increases their chances of being exposed to the dangers of weather depressions and winter storms.
It is estimated that about two million people in Gaza are in urgent need of shelter and basic supplies, while human rights organizations say that about 65 percent of the Strip’s families reside in displacement tents and temporary shelter centers.
The absence of fuel and the scarcity of heating means increase the suffering of the displaced, as families are unable to provide warmth for their children and the elderly, in light of the low temperatures during the night hours and the rainwater seeping into their shelters.
Health officials in the Gaza Strip warn of the spread of diseases after sewage mixed with rainwater invaded the tents of displaced Palestinians.
The heavy rains left tens of thousands of people homeless, as they tried to remove polluted water from their tents, according to the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip.
In the same context, the Hamas movement, which still runs the Gaza Strip, said that the intensification of winter in the Strip “exposes the crime of siege and occupation and deepens the humanitarian catastrophe by disrupting the implementation of the humanitarian protocol,” holding “the occupation and the Peace Council” responsible for the worsening tragedy of the displaced, the continuation of the siege, and the prevention of the entry of humanitarian aid.
The movement added, in a statement, that "the catastrophic effects of the depression, and the accompanying flooding of refugee camps and residential neighborhoods and damage to buildings, represent a direct result of the continuation of the siege policy pursued by the occupation government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, and its prevention of implementing the humanitarian protocol stipulated in the ceasefire agreement."
She continued, "The dull positions of the so-called Peace Council and its Executive Director Mladenov towards the occupation's violations of the ceasefire agreement constitute a cover for the continuation of these violations, calling on the Council to assume its humanitarian and moral responsibilities and work to stop the deterioration of the situation in the Gaza Strip."
One of the displaced women narrates the details of her daily suffering with her children, stressing that they have been living for a long time in harsh conditions, during which they were forced to set up a shelter and take shelter in it, without having the most basic necessities for a decent life.
She told the Middle East Diaries program via BBC: “All night long, water submerges mattresses, blankets, clothes, and children’s belongings. Our whole life has become moving from one place to another. We are trying to move children and girls and protect what remains of our possessions. We put up a shade and sat under it all winter, but we did not find anyone to ask about us or provide us with a shelter that would preserve our dignity, despite the appeals.”
She adds that the tent in which she lives is not suitable for living, noting that family members are forced to seek the help of several people to pull the bed of an elderly and crippled woman out, in an attempt to save it from the water, while she has been standing in the street since the morning hours waiting for someone to pay attention to their suffering and provide them with a tent or a roof to protect them from the rain.
In another testimony, a woman who lost her husband and family members in the war recounts the magnitude of the tragedy she is experiencing with her orphan children, in the absence of any family support or source of protection, stressing that the rain caused their tent to collapse and their belongings to be completely drowned.
She says: "All night we could not sleep. The tent fell over our heads, and the water flooded everything around us. We no longer had dry clothes or blankets to take shelter under, and we had to get clothes from people for our children."
The woman points out that her suffering is becoming more severe due to the health condition of her daughter, who suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, and an enlarged liver, stressing that her only request is to provide a suitable and safe tent for her sick children, away from water and cold.
She describes her repeated attempts to drain the water and save what can be saved, saying that she is forced to go down to the sea to fetch sand and use it to confront the pools of water, but her attempts are in vain as the tent and its surroundings continue to sink.
The testimony of another man summarizes the extent of the suffering that displaced families are experiencing as the rains intensify, stressing that the water submerged the tents and drowned the luggage and furnishings, which forced them to take the remainder of their possessions outside, without having an alternative place to take shelter.
