Daijiworld Media Network - Gaza

Gaza, Nov 7: Gaza’s Civil Defence has appealed for urgent international assistance after severe rain and strong winds battered the enclave, flooding displacement camps and destroying tents and makeshift shelters housing thousands of Palestinians.

The agency said it had received more than 1,500 distress calls from people whose tents or shelters were damaged in the latest storm. Entire displacement camps have been inundated, leaving families, including women and children, struggling amid rising floodwaters.

Speaking to reporters, Gaza’s civil defence director called for international mobilisation to provide emergency services and essential relief supplies, particularly tents, to people who have lost their shelter.

“Displaced citizens, with their children and women, are now drowning, and the rains are sweeping away their tents,” the agency said.

The Civil Defence warned that it could not manage the scale of the emergency on its own because of severe shortages of resources and equipment, particularly machinery and pumps needed to drain water from flooded areas. It urged humanitarian organisations and the international community to intervene immediately.

The latest flooding has further exposed the vulnerability of displaced families living in overcrowded camps and makeshift shelters as the rainy season sets in. The United Nations had earlier warned that around 950,000 displaced people in Gaza were living at sites facing moderate to high flood risks, including more than 400,000 at high risk. Available shelter supplies were assessed as sufficient to partially assist only a fraction of the families requiring support ahead of the rainy season.