A storm flooded 70,000 tents across Gaza in its first 12 hours, adding to hardships for displaced Palestinians facing what Israel’s Arab Joint List called a fourth winter in tents, Gaza’s Media Office said.
The office put preliminary direct storm losses at about $3 million and said dozens of walls damaged in Israeli strikes had collapsed. Gaza’s Civil Defence service said it received 1,500 distress calls from displaced residents, Reuters reported.
The Joint List, which won 12 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, said hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to survive in tents. It warned that mothers and infants faced cold and rain without adequate shelter.
In interviews with Reuters, municipal and civil defence officials described shortages of fuel and working equipment as barriers to an effective flood response. They counted bulldozers and water-pumping vehicles among hundreds of vehicles Israel had destroyed. A resident told Reuters that rain two weeks earlier soaked her bedding; she slept on blankets on the floor for four days.
COGAT, the Israeli military body that coordinates aid, said Friday it had worked with international organizations on sanitation ahead of the storm. It reported four vacuum trucks entering Gaza through the International Committee of the Red Cross that week, after eight arrived during the previous month.
