Winter Floods Swamp Tens of Thousands of Tents in Gaza, Deepening Humanitarian Crisis

Heavy rains and flooding have caused deaths from landslides and destroyed thousands of tents in Gaza, deepening an already severe humanitarian crisis. The Board of Peace, which the reporting describes as President Donald Trump’s body, issued an urgent appeal this week. Its statement said severe seasonal flooding over the previous two days had swamped tens of thousands of tents and makeshift shelters, damaged essential belongings, and left displaced families, who were already living in precarious conditions, exposed to cold and unsafe conditions.

The Board said the situation had moved beyond the threat of approaching winter and had become an immediate humanitarian emergency. It called for urgent entry and distribution of shelter, sanitation, drainage, and other winterization supplies, which it described as critical to protecting civilian lives. The statement said that through the Board’s direct facilitation, significant humanitarian progress had been made over the past year, with food access now extending across the population and nutritional conditions improving dramatically, but it added that these gains were not enough and needed protection from preventable emergencies.

The Board said it had warned for months about conditions now unfolding and had repeatedly urged all parties to meet their commitments under the President’s Comprehensive Peace Plan. It said it had specifically urged the Israeli government to authorize entry of essential materials for temporary shelter, water and sanitation infrastructure, waste management, drainage, and sewage removal, and to abide by its commitments under the Sharm El-Sheikh Humanitarian Protocol. It also said it had repeatedly pressed Hamas to lay down its arms and relinquish governing authority. The Board stated that these failures to act had impeded progress and compounded the challenges facing Gaza’s civilian population.

The New York Times reported on one family’s loss. On Sunday, relatives buried the family of Ahmad Nabhan, whose deaths the Board of Peace for Gaza had described as a “foreseeable” disaster in the crowded enclave. The United Nations and relief workers had repeatedly said that Gaza’s two million Palestinian residents needed more and better supplies for a winter that many would spend, for the fourth year running, in squalid, trash-ridden camps. According to the report, Mr. Nabhan, 36, stepped out on Sunday night to have coffee with friends in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza. Minutes later, rain caused a sand embankment to collapse on his tent, burying his wife, Tahrir, 36; his son, Salah, 8; his daughter, Mariam, 5; and his niece, Habiba, 4. The account was based on Gaza authorities and relatives. Caring for people left exposed to the cold in a tent is a plain act of charity (Matthew 25:35).

The Times of Israel described the wider flooding after winter storms struck the Eastern Mediterranean coast on Friday night and Saturday. Its report said heavy rains flooded tent camps in the Gaza Strip and left tens of thousands of families without shelter. Residents told the outlet they felt overwhelmed as rains flooded more than 70,000 tents, affecting tens of thousands of displaced people and causing injuries, although no fatalities were reported in that account. The source notes that the New York Times report of the landslide deaths is more recent.

The Israeli government says it is allowing some supplies through, including tens of thousands of tents, but has banned mobile homes, which aid agencies have sought.

Source: Read the original report