Heavy rains flood tents in Gaza

The first heavy rains of the autumn season flooded tents of displaced Palestinian families in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, exacerbating the people’s suffering, UNRWA said yesterday.

The UN agency explained that the displaced persons’ crisis is worsening due to the severe shortage of basic materials needed to protect them from winds, rain and floods.

Dozens of families in Khan Yunis were forced to evacuate their tents after the city’s municipality warned that staying near rainwater pools with the approach of the rain storms could endanger their lives.

Many feared the prospect of having to find new shelters in the besieged enclave before the winter season sets in.

Following yesterday’s rainfall, the Emergency Committee in the Deir Al-Balah Municipality in the central Gaza Strip launched a distress call demanding immediate intervention to save citizens and displaced persons from the risk of drowning in rainwater, especially in the Sahen Al-Baraka area and low-lying regions of the city.

The committee said the city, like the rest of the Gaza Strip, has been subjected to widespread destruction of infrastructure as a result of the ongoing Israeli attacks, which led to significant damage to road, water, sewage and rainwater drainage networks, making preparations for winter extremely difficult.

The heavy rains have exacerbated the difficult humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip, and UN humanitarian workers have expressed deep concern about the deterioration of the health situation in the region in light of the ongoing shelling and fighting.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that many areas in Gaza have been flooded, which has increased the displaced families’ suffering.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned of the difficulty of managing sanitation conditions in crowded shelters, where flooding and waste accumulation lead to the spread of insects, mosquitoes and rats, increasing the risk of disease.

Read: UNRWA warns of health risks as insects, rodents spread in Gaza