Days of heavy rain have flooded hundreds of makeshift shelters across Gaza, heaping more misery on displaced Palestinians as Israel continues to restrict humanitarian aid in the midst of its genocide.
Forcefully displaced families across Gaza are scrambling to keep their children warm and salvage what few belongings they have left.
While the weather is expected to improve in the coming days, for some it is already too late. At least seven people, including six babies, have died of hypothermia over the past week.
The cold weather has put further strain on Gaza’s already crumbling health care system. A field hospital was flooded in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
The Palestinian Civil Defense says floods rose to more than 30 cm (12 inches) in the affected tents, leaving displaced Palestinians exposed to the cold and causing damage to their belongings and mattresses.
The emergency service said tents – located in areas including northern Gaza City, southern Khan Younis, as well as in central Deir el-Balah – were rendered unusable by the flooding.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are crammed into inadequate tents, most of which have been hastily erected in Deir el-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah, while Gaza’s 2.4 million residents face severe shortages of drinking water, food and medicine. .
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed at least 45,541 Palestinians and injured 108,338 as of October 7, 2023.
