“We were living, happy, and we loved to see the rain and live its atmosphere, and now we pray every day to God that the rain will not fall on us, because we know that this will happen to us and we will drown.” With these difficult words, Al-Ghazi Ahmed Al-Sahar - who was displaced from Jabalia to a camp for the displaced in the Al-Karama area, northwest of Gaza City - summarized the situation he lived in during a difficult night of heavy rain that did not stop and drowned His tent in which he lives with his family of 6 people.
Al-Sahar said in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat: “There is nothing to talk about, our lives are just hell,” noting that the rains flooded most of the camp in which he lives, which consists of more than 300 tents, all of whom are residents of the Jabalia camp and its surroundings, which was completely destroyed by Israeli forces during the war.
The displaced people inside the Gaza Strip faced a severe humanitarian crisis, after their tents and entire displacement camps were flooded as a result of the heavy rains that only stopped for a short time since the late evening hours of Friday, and continued until the morning hours, until they stopped and became scattered in the afternoon hours, amid expectations that their heavy rains would return again in the evening and Sunday dawn.
Rainwater flooded the streets, which mainly suffer from the lack of infrastructure that was destroyed during the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, while displacement camps from the north to the south of the Strip were completely flooded, causing thousands of tents to drown, and hundreds of them were no longer fit for life after the rains caused their destruction, given that they were already worn out and were barely fit for living.
Al-Sahhar says in a voice overcome with sorrow and pain: “There is nothing in our hands other than praying to God to stop this rain and not to return... We drowned and were lost.” Many of the displaced people lost their belongings and their tents, and they also lost some basic possessions, such as utensils and others, after they were washed away by rainwater, and were subsequently damaged.
Citizen Suad Al-Jamal, displaced in the Gaza port, said that her family’s mattress and clothes were drowned, forcing her and her family members to go to her sister’s house despite the harsh weather to stay the night. Al-Jamal indicated that she lost many of her simple kitchen tools in her tent, which were barely enough for her and her family members, which consisted of 4 children, her husband, and two young men.
According to statistics published by the government media office in Gaza, within 12 hours of the start of the depression, 70,000 tents housing tens of thousands of displaced people sank, in addition to the collapse of dozens of walls, causing casualties, and losses were estimated at more than $3 million.
While the Civil Defense Service in Gaza reported that since the start of the depression, it has received more than 1,500 distress calls from citizens whose tents and shelter centers were damaged in all governorates of the Gaza Strip, pointing out that the flooding of entire camps in all regions and cities of the Strip was recorded.
The defense apparatus said: “The displaced citizens, along with their children and women, are drowning, and the rains are sweeping away their tents, despite the numerous humanitarian appeals and appeals that we launched to save them before we saw these tragic scenes in the camps,” indicating that it alone cannot confront the repercussions of this low in light of the scale of the disaster, and the lack of capabilities and equipment for withdrawing water from areas where rainwater collects, and that responsibility requires the solidarity of all local and international institutions, and the provision of urgent support in the form of equipment, machinery, fuel, and materials. Relief, and giving priority to protecting citizens, especially children, women, the elderly, and the sick.
Several houses and buildings damaged by the war partially collapsed as a result of heavy rain, causing several moderate injuries, while about 30 Palestinians escaped from a damaged building on Al-Shuhada Street, west of Gaza City, after it partially collapsed at dawn on Saturday.
In a statement by its spokesman in Gaza, Hazem Qassem, Hamas considered that “the catastrophic humanitarian scene in the Gaza Strip, and the drowning of hundreds of families in their tents due to the tragic conditions... represents a disgrace on the face of the international community, which is still unable to oblige the occupation to lift its unjust siege of the Gaza Strip,” placing full responsibility on Israel, the concerned parties, the “Peace Council” and its representative, Nikolai Mladenov.
At a time when the Lebanese are busy awaiting the repercussions of the results of the American and Israeli elections on their internal reality, and whether it will lead to a war in the region that includes Lebanon, or to a major political agreement in which Lebanon will rule, reassurances have recently emerged that have reached a number of Lebanese officials, to the effect that “Hezbollah” does not intend to participate in any future war in support of Iran.
However, these assurances seem to many to be insufficient, based on the experience of the last round of war, when it was said that the party informed the Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri, at the time, that it would not participate in it, before it reversed its position and opened fire towards Israel on the second of last March. Some of them spoke at the time about conflicts in decisions between the political and military wings.
Here, big question marks are raised about whether the decision within Hezbollah is still central, taken by a political and organizational leadership that is binding on all its institutions, or has the say now belonged to the field and the military wing? More importantly, does the party still have an independent margin to make its decisions, or is the strategic decision related to the war now being decided in Tehran, according to Iranian interests and calculations?
In this context, political writer Dr. Qasim Kassir, who is closely familiar with Hezbollah’s position, explains that “the leadership in the party is represented by the (Decision Shura), which is the body that makes decisions and binds all agencies and institutions to it, including the political and jihadist councils.” Kassir denies the existence of a decision taken by the Political Council in exchange for another decision issued by the Jihadist Council, stressing that “there is one central decision taken by the (Resolution Shura) and everyone adheres to it.”
On the other hand, the political writer and editor-in-chief of the Janoubia website, Ali Al-Amin, offers a different reading, based on the consideration that “the word in (Hezbollah) was and still is in the field, and that the military wing is the one that controls this field, and constitutes the direct and actual extension of the (Iranian Revolutionary Guard).” Al-Amin asserts that “the decision to explode the war in Lebanon, whether in the previous round or in any future round, is primarily an Iranian decision, governed by Iranian interests, and (Hezbollah) has no real scope to change it or object to it.”
Lebanon is experiencing a state of increasing confusion and anxiety, in light of the information circulating about the possibility of it being part of any future regional confrontation between the United States and Israel on the one hand, and Iran on the other hand. Concerns are not limited to citizens who fear a repeat of the scene of war, destruction, and displacement, but also extend to Lebanese officials who find themselves facing possibilities whose course they do not have the full ability to control, in the absence of clear guarantees regarding Hezbollah’s position in the event of a confrontation erupting.
