Gaza Health: 350,000 displaced Palestinians sleeping in the open; “Is the world waiting for our children to freeze?”

Around 350,000 displaced Palestinians are sleeping in the open after their tents were flooded by a severe storm, Gaza Health Ministry Director General Munir al-Bursh said on Sunday, asking: “Is the world waiting for our children to freeze to death?”

“What is the world waiting for? Is it waiting for a child to arrive at hospital with frozen limbs or suffering from dehydration?” al-Bursh said in press statements.

“Protect children where they are displaced, open the crossings and allow reconstruction materials and tents to enter,” he added.

Al-Bursh said thousands of tents are waiting at the crossings, but the Israeli army is preventing them from entering, while 350,000 displaced people are left exposed to the elements because of the storm.

Earlier on Sunday, a Palestinian woman and four children were killed and others injured when a landslide involving sand and rocks collapsed onto tents sheltering displaced people in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, the Gaza Civil Defence said.

Rescue teams are continuing to search for missing people.

Since Friday evening, a severe weather system accompanied by heavy rain and strong winds has hit the Gaza Strip, worsening the suffering of displaced people living in worn-out tents that offer little protection from rain and cold.

According to the Gaza Government Media Office, the storm flooded 70,000 displacement tents and caused dozens of walls damaged by Israeli bombardment to collapse during its first 12 hours, resulting in injuries, some of them serious.