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As Israel intensified its airstrikes, heavy rain flooded refugee tents in the Gaza Strip. By Reuters

MONews
5 Min Read

Author: Nidal al-Mughrabi and Mohammad Salem

CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) – Heavy rain fell across the Gaza Strip on Monday, flooding tent encampments of Palestinian refugees and bringing seasonal winter to a community already devastated by 13 months of war as Israeli forces intensified their attacks on the region. It added to the misery.

Heavy overnight rain flooded tents and washed away plastic and cloth shelters used by Gaza refugees in some places. Most of them have been uprooted several times during the conflict between Israel and Hamas militants.

Some even placed water buckets on the floor to prevent their mats from leaking and dug trenches to drain water from their tents.

Many of the tents used early in the war are now worn out and no longer provide protection, but the cost of new tents and plastic sheets has soared beyond the reach of displaced families.

Suad Al-Sabea, a mother of six from northern Gaza, currently lives in a classroom with broken windows in a dormitory at a school for displaced people in Khan Younis, south of the Strip.

To support her children, Savea sells bread baked in an earthen oven that uses wood fuel. But the rain spoiled the flour and damaged the oven, putting her at risk of losing her job.

“I used to be scared for life and death, but now I’m worried about the rain,” she said.

“The dough was in the water, a lot of the mattresses were in the water. It was raining overhead and I kept baking to support my children,” Sabea told Reuters.

Some campsites closer to the beach were flooded and some tents were swept away by high waves.

“The sea took my little daughter. I thank God we were able to rescue her,” said Mariam Abu Saqer, who lived in a tent next to the beach before the waters flooded.

“We don’t know where to go, wherever we go, they tell us there’s no space,” she said.

The Hamas-run Gaza government press office said about 10,000 tents had been swept away or damaged by the winter storm and appealed for international help to provide displaced families with tents to protect them from heavy rains.

“According to government field assessment teams, 81% of displaced people’s tents are no longer usable. Of the 135,000 tents, 110,000 are completely worn out and in need of urgent replacement,” it said in a statement.

Palestinian civil emergency services say thousands of people have been affected by seasonal flooding and have asked aid donors for new tents and caravans to protect them.

The first rains of winter mean more suffering, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said in a post on

“About half a million people are at risk in flood zones,” he said. “Every time it rains, every bomb explodes, every attack, the situation will get worse.”

Israel, UPS strike in Gaza Strip

Meanwhile, Israeli military offensives have intensified across the territory. Israeli airstrikes killed at least four people in Rafah, southern Gaza, and tanks intensified attacks on the northern edge of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and Jabalia, medics said. Historic refugee camp.

Medical staff said seven Palestinians were killed in two Israeli airstrikes in the Jabalia area.

Residents said Israeli planes on Monday dropped new leaflets in Beit Lahiya ordering the remaining residents to leave south, saying the area would be attacked and providing them with maps.

Residents say Israeli forces have blown up hundreds of homes since resuming operations in areas they said were cleared of militants months ago.

Palestinians say Israel appears determined to permanently depopulate the area to create a buffer zone along the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, a claim Israel denies.

Israel’s operation in Gaza has killed more than 44,200 people, uprooted at least one entire population and reduced large areas of the narrow coastal strip to rubble, according to Gaza officials.

The war broke out on October 7, 2023, after Hamas-led militants attacked across the border, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages to the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli statistics.

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