Gaza: Torrential rains deprive tens of thousands of displaced people of shelter

A new drama for the Gaza Strip. Torrential rains in the region, already ravaged by war, led to the flooding of tens of thousands of tents of displaced people, depriving them of shelter, and left several injured, local authorities said this Saturday. Around “70,000 tents sheltering tens of thousands of displaced people were flooded during the first day” of a depression affecting the Palestinian territory, said the press office of the government controlled by Hamas.

Since early morning, hundreds of families have been seen fleeing flooded displacement camps in the central and northern Gaza Strip, as well as Gaza City. The territory's Civil Defense received more than 1,500 emergency calls during the night, according to its spokesperson, who specifies that its teams were operating "without any equipment or means". The first aid organization, which operates under the authority of Hamas, cannot “face the consequences of this depression alone,” insisted the spokesperson, who “launched an emergency appeal to the international community and humanitarian organizations.”

“We couldn't save the mattresses and all our clothes were soaked,” said Oum Mohamed al-Hersh, 45, who lives with his family in a tent in western Gaza. We experience this ordeal every winter. » “My children ask me where we are going to sleep this evening and I have no answer,” testified Maryam Odeh, a 34-year-old resident of Deir al-Balah, who is saddened by “no longer knowing how to protect [them]. Khaled al-Najjar, 41, is also worried about his family, because of the risk of tents collapsing and “the cold and the diseases spreading”.