Heavy rains have inundated over 1,542 tents housing displaced civilians in the Gaza Strip in the past two days amid Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave, the Civil Defense Service said on Wednesday.
“Hundreds of tents were flooded with rainwater at a level exceeding 30 centimeters,” the agency said in a statement.
“Many people were reported to be shivering from the cold as their belongings were damaged by the rainwater,” it added.
The Civil Defense has announced that 1,500 tents have been flooded, which means 1,500 families are affected as a result of the rain.
The service said torrential rains have swept away 497 tents in Gaza City, 210 in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, 170 in Rafah and 665 in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The Gaza Strip has been hit by a cold wave and torrential rains since Sunday, bringing more misery to the territory’s 2.3 million population.
Local health authorities said Monday that at least seven people, including six babies, froze to death due to the winter cold in the enclave, according to Anadolu.
The Israeli army has continued a genocidal war on Gaza that has killed over 45,500 victims, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, reducing the enclave to rubble.
In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
'We plead for someone to save us from this war' – distraught Palestinian woman exclaims
The Civil Defense in Gaza reports that over 1,542 tents sheltering displaced people are flooded by heavy rainwater over the past two days. Families have no alternative shelter pic.twitter.com/8J2AvqDCGK
Activist Anas Samhan writes a reflection on the relentless tragedies of war, encapsulating the unyielding suffering endured by countless displaced people in the Gaza Strip. He paints a harrowing picture of destruction, hunger, killing, and hard conditions of seasons. Samhan’s words underscore the diverse, unimaginable ways people face death in such circumstances.
Israeli forces attacked the house of journalist Hazem Abu Arqoub near the Bilal Mosque in Central Khan Younis, killing him and his wife.
The killing of Abu Arqoub has raised the death toll of Gazan journalists since the start of the war to 197, according to Gaza Government Media Office.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least six Palestinian journalists have been killed in less than a month due to the relentless Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
Earlier today, the Israeli military targeted the house of journalist Hazem Abu Arqoub near… pic.twitter.com/10tkLuwJ2k
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least six Palestinian journalists have been killed in less than a month due to the relentless Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
Gaza’s Civil Defense reported, Saturday, Israeli forces are killing Palestinians and leaving their bodies in the streets where stray dogs are feeding on them as a clear violation of international law.
In a statement, the Civil Defense explained Israeli forces have repeatedly targeted rescue teams and ambulances, specifically when they attempt to approach the bodies of those killed.
It emphasized that Israel has also obstructed efforts to recover the bodies of thousands of Palestinians who have died under the rubble of homes destroyed in Israeli airstrikes.
It added that it had found several Palestinian bodies that had been reduced to skeletons according to Anadolu.
In other instances, it described seeing stray dogs feeding on the bodies in several neighborhoods, including Zeitoun, Shujaiya, Tel al-Hawa, the Jabalia area, Tal al-Zaatar, Beit Hanoun, and parts of the eastern areas of Khan Younis and Rafah.
Stressing that these actions by Israel constitute violations of the Geneva Conventions, it called on the signatory countries to “take immediate action to ensure Israel’s compliance with international law.”
They urged the international community, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), to “pressure Israel to follow proper protocols for handling the bodies of the deceased during wartime.”
Israel launched a genocidal war on Gaza that has killed more than 45,200 people, mostly women and children, since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last month for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on Gaza.
Describing the level of devastation across the Gaza Strip as “absolutely staggering”, the Head of Emergency Communications for the World Food Programme (WFP) has told UN News in an interview that civilians are desperate for lifesaving aid and there’s a growing risk of widespread famine.
Speaking from Gaza, Jonathan Dumont said many people have been displaced multiple times, and that families are living either in tents or in the rubble of collapsed buildings, with no access to electricity or running water.
The text has been edited for length and clarity.
UN News: How do you describe the situation on the ground in Gaza, after more than a year since the war erupted there?
Jonathan Dumont: The devastation is absolutely staggering. This year, I’ve been to Goma, Port au Prince, Khartoum, a lot of different places where people have issues getting food or have been displaced. But in Gaza, I haven’t met anyone who hasn’t been displaced at least two or three times, due to military activity.
Almost everyone has lost their home. In the south, a lot of people are living in tents, and with the winter coming, you have rain and wind blowing them over, flooding them. Most kids don’t have shoes.
A lot of people feel they have no choice but to go back to their homes, which are quite frequently, literally rubble. I met a few families who are living in basically the cement blocks that have collapsed over them, and there’s no electricity, running water or sewage. This is the second winter for many of them that they’re homeless.
UN News: What is the most striking story you’ve heard from people in Gaza?
Jonathan Dumont: When we were moving to Gaza City, we had to pass a checkpoint, and there were some bodies on a bridge in this sort of no man’s land area, and there were dogs eating the bodies. It was an horrific scene.
Some of our colleagues were tasked to pick up the bodies, and we couldn’t stop, but a bit later we came across two women and some children who were walking south, due to the intense military activity in the north. What struck me the most in that moment was that those children were going to come across the same scene of the dogs eating corpses, and I kept thinking about the impact that it might have on them.
UN News: You’ve been to the northern part of Gaza. Can you tell us more about what you saw there?
Jonathan Dumont: I’ve been to Gaza City, although I didn’t go to the areas in the far north. Gaza City is a huge city but many of the buildings have been destroyed. Before you had villas, beach cabanas and a fishing port, and now it is just a ghost town.
Much of Gaza has been destroyed in the ongoing conflict.
WFP is able to reach that area, so there’s some food there, but the food prices of what’s not coming from the international community, or from WFP, are through the roof. There was someone selling peppers for 195 dollars…five dollars for one pepper. People can’t afford that.
Bakeries are being treated as banks – with metal slots and a metal corridor to channel people through because people are desperate, and they don’t want people to get injured or crushed trying to get food.
In Khan Yunis, where we are distributing hot meals, people get really desperate – you can see it in their faces, in their eyes.
UN News: The IPC report warned of the acute hunger and maybe some of people are on the verge of famine. Do you think the food insecurity is getting worse in Gaza?
Jonathan Dumont: The problem is that there’s been a total breakdown of society here, there’s no police, no infrastructure or any of the structures of society. As a result, what we’ve had in the southern part of Gaza is that gangs are emerging. We’ve had our trucks coming in from the south looted, and our drivers beaten.
We are trying to find solutions to have a consistent flow of food in. Obviously, the easiest way to do that would be if there was a ceasefire, which we are always hopeful will happen. In the absence of that, we need to find a way of getting all the food that we have outside Gaza into the country so that people can access it. We need to make sure people have access to food.
UN News: Many of the bakeries are not functioning. How many of them are working at full capacity?
Jonathan Dumont: In the south there is none of the WFP’s bakeries which are big volume bakeries. In the north there are some, but in the south, there are just small bakeries, so people are improvising when they have some flour.
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