A Nov. 6 storm flooded Gaza sites for displaced people, damaging shelters; aid groups assisted 422 households by Nov. 8 as U.N. monitors recorded a record number of West Bank olive-harvest attacks.
Storm conditions began on the evening of Nov. 6 and continued through the weekend, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. By Nov. 8, partners had received appeals from more than 26,000 households, assessed 1,877 and provided support to 422. OCHA described the figures as provisional and said the full impact could be higher.
Gaza Civil Defence logged 2,166 requests for help on Nov. 7; response teams attended 218, and water rose to 1.5 meters in some places. At Al Berka Reservoir, west of Deir al-Balah, a sandy hill gave way over tents, killing five people — three children and two women — and injuring one, according to Civil Defence figures cited by OCHA. OCHA separately said an infant reportedly drowned at a displacement site.
In an Oct. 15 assessment, OCHA estimated that about 950,000 displaced people were in sites facing medium or high flood risk, with more than 400,000 in high-risk locations. The agency also estimated that 1.4 million people, or 65% of Gaza's population, were living in tents or makeshift shelters. Stocks of tents, tarpaulins, blankets and clothing inside Gaza were nearly exhausted, OCHA said.
A Shelter Cluster estimate of rainy-season needs included about 121,000 tents and 561,000 tarpaulins, along with 57,000 emergency shelter kits and 1.7 million mattresses. According to OCHA, bringing in pumps, heavy machinery and other supplies depends on funding and Israeli approvals.
Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children International's regional director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, said: “Children who should have been safe and warm with their families instead lost their lives in an entirely preventable way.”
Ismail al-Thawabta, director of Gaza's Government Media Office, warned in an interview published by Anadolu Agency on Nov. 10 that Gaza could flood again this winter without supplies to rebuild infrastructure.
OCHA counted 377 settler attacks related to the West Bank olive harvest from Sept. 1 to Nov. 2, surpassing the total for any previous harvest season. It also recorded 457 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage during October, the highest monthly count since U.N. documentation began in 2006.
