dpa
Cairo
The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency warned on Monday of even more suffering for people in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip as the first heavy rains of the winter season arrived.
“Around half a million people are at risk in areas of flooding,” the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) wrote on X.
“The situation will only get worse with every drop of rain, every bomb, every strike.” On Sunday, rain poured down in parts of Gaza, where people displaced by the ongoing fighting are living in tents. Many temporary dwellings had been damaged, according to the Hamas-controlled civil defence.
Some low-lying areas were flooded, partly because there is no functioning sewage system. Footage circulated on social media showed children walking between tents through ankle-deep water.
“Water flowed into our tent and flooded all our belongings,” 36-year-old Mariam Abdel Aal, who is staying in al-Mawasi in the south of the Gaza Strip, told DPA.
Her five children also got wet. The family, who originally come from Gaza City in the north, have hardly any clothes to keep them warm.
Every day is a tragedy, Aal said. Ismail Issa’s family, who are living in a tent in Deir al-Balah in the centre of the strip, are also suffering from the weather, he said.
The children are constantly cold and sick, Issa emphasized in an interview with DPA. He said his family has hardly any food to cook a warming soup for them, for example.
Before the war broke out, Issa and his family lived in Jabalia in northern Gaza, where fierce fighting is currently raging. According to UN figures, around 90% of the 2.2 million inhabitants of the sealed-off coastal area have been displaced since the war began, many several times.
