Storm floods 70,000 tents in Gaza, leaving displaced families without shelter

Heavy rain and strong winds have flooded about 70,000 tents in the Gaza Strip, leaving displaced Palestinian families without shelter, according to Gaza's Government Media Office. The storm began late on Friday and brought down dozens of walls. The office estimated initial losses at about $3 million.

Al Jazeera reported that since early Saturday displaced families have been leaving camps in parts of Gaza City, other northern areas and parts of central Gaza after rainwater flooded them. Gaza authorities also reported cracked walls and collapsed roofs that caused injuries, some of them critical.

Medical sources told Anadolu Agency that five Palestinians were injured when two walls of buildings damaged by earlier Israeli strikes collapsed and a sheet of corrugated metal fell during the storm.

Palestinian Civil Defence received more than 1,500 calls overnight from residents asking for urgent help, according to Al Jazeera. Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said: "We have issued an urgent distress call to the international community and humanitarian organisations to intervene immediately to save hundreds of thousands of displaced people from the flooding of their tents." He added: "We cannot face the consequences of this storm on our own."

Abdullah al-Majdalawi, director of public relations at Gaza Civil Defense, said rescuers could deal with immediate threats to life but lacked the resources to provide shelter. "We go to people and find an entire camp flooded, with its tents, people, furniture and bedding," he said. He blamed the lack of safer alternatives on Israel's blockade and restrictions on mobile homes and reconstruction materials.

Gaza Municipality spokesman Hosni Muhanna said families whose tents were damaged have nowhere to stay. About 1 million residents and displaced people are crowded into roughly 30% of Gaza City's area, he said. The city received 60 millimeters of rain in 12 hours, around 15% of its annual rainfall, and municipal crews responded to most of 250 calls about flooded streets, erosion and blocked drains with limited resources.

Muhanna warned that 270 camps and shelter sites in Gaza City are at risk of flooding, and said war damage has cut the drainage system's capacity to 20%. He demanded that crossings be fully opened so winter supplies, relief materials and heavy equipment can reach Gaza.

UNRWA said on Thursday that 1.98 million people, about 94% of Gaza's population, needed shelter and other essential supplies, based on surveys in June, and 58% faced critical or catastrophic shelter needs. In October, OCHA warned that 950,000 Palestinians lived in displacement sites at moderate or high flood risk, more than 400,000 of them in high-risk areas.