Gaza floods expose deadly cost of Israel’s aid restrictions, says Medical Aid for Palestinians

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), a British health and humanitarian charity, has called on the UK government to sanction those obstructing aid to Gaza, after weekend floods exposed what it calls the catastrophic consequences of Israel’s continued restrictions on shelter, medicine and equipment entering the enclave.

Heavy rain and high winds flooded tens of thousands of tents across Gaza over the weekend. Families already living in desperate conditions saw their shelters destroyed and belongings washed away, and could no longer easily reach healthcare.

Emergency responders struggled to reach people because of fuel shortages and damaged equipment. MAP says around 65 per cent of Gaza’s population lives in tents or makeshift shelters, and some 950,000 people are in areas at medium or high risk of flooding. Almost the entire population needs shelter and other humanitarian help.

Three children and a woman were killed when a sand embankment collapsed onto their tents, and an infant reportedly drowned. Floodwater also entered departments at hospitals supported by MAP, including Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society Hospital.

MAP says Israel continues to restrict the entry of shelter supplies, medication and equipment despite the immense need and its legal obligation to let aid in. Israel directly controls around 70 per cent of Gaza, and has repeatedly pushed its “yellow zone” deeper into the territory. As a result, Palestinians have few options to move to safer ground that is less prone to flooding, while Israeli military attacks continue daily.

The floods also disrupted MAP’s own work. Floodwater and broken roads made it hard for patients to reach the charity’s Solidarity Polyclinic in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where tens of thousands of forcibly displaced people live in encampments. The roads could not be cleared because Israel blocks or restricts the heavy machinery needed under its “dual use” policy, which bars goods it claims could have military uses. Four members of MAP’s medical team could not get to work because their own shelters had flooded.

“What we are seeing here is catastrophic,” said Mai Elawawda, MAP’s communications officer in Gaza. “This is the fourth winter that Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to endure in makeshift tents, and the second since the so-called ‘ceasefire’. Families are once again watching floodwater sweep through displacement camps while having nowhere else to go and very few options to protect themselves. Our medical teams expect to see more respiratory illnesses and other health complications linked to cold, damp and overcrowded conditions, and we fear more children could die from hypothermia, as happened last winter.”

At least six children died of hypothermia in Gaza last winter, UNICEF said.

“The flooding has also affected our own colleagues, with some finding their shelters and belongings damaged,” Elawawda added. “Medical teams are working through severe weather and flooded roads to continue providing care, but access to healthcare is becoming even harder. We are approaching yet another winter and yet another long season of manmade hardship and suffering.”

‘A crisis of impunity’

Rohan Talbot, MAP’s director of advocacy, campaigns and communications, said the disaster was not simply humanitarian. “At its heart this is not a humanitarian crisis, but a crisis of impunity,” he said. “The unthinkable suffering caused by this flooding is a predictable consequence of the collective punishment of Gaza’s population by Israel, which continues to obstruct the entry of humanitarian aid, shelter materials, reconstruction supplies and essential equipment.”

Talbot criticised the Board of Peace, the US-led body set up under President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan to oversee aid and reconstruction, which has struggled to raise funds since it was launched. “Palestinians have been betrayed by the false promises of the Board of Peace to bring aid, security and reconstruction to Gaza,” he said. “Instead, a year on, millions of people remain trapped in makeshift tents, exposed to the elements, because the materials needed to rebuild homes, roads, water systems and health services are still not reaching them.”

He urged the government to use powers it has only just acquired. Last week, Parliament approved an expansion of Britain’s Global Human Rights sanctions regime that for the first time allows ministers to target people responsible for war crimes and for obstructing humanitarian aid. “The UK Government has created new powers to impose sanctions on those responsible for obstructing aid and serious violations of international humanitarian law,” Talbot said. “What is happening in Gaza shows exactly why urgent action is needed to puncture impunity, ensure international humanitarian law is upheld, and ensure the rapid and unobstructed entry of aid.”

MAP is calling on world leaders and the UK government to move beyond statements of concern. It wants urgent action to let humanitarian aid, shelter and reconstruction materials and medical supplies into Gaza without obstruction, and a permanent ceasefire that ends Israel’s genocide in Gaza. It also urges support for international accountability mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court, to investigate attacks on healthcare and other serious violations of international law. And it wants an immediate suspension of all arms sales to Israel, including components for F-35 fighter jets, and an end to all military cooperation.

The charity warned last month that Israel’s genocide in Gaza has continued in the year since the ceasefire was declared.