DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Rains drenched Gaza’s tent camps and freezing temperatures froze Palestinians huddled inside them Thursday as Winter Storm Byron descended on the war-torn territory, showing that two months of ceasefires have not done enough to resolve the spiraling humanitarian crisis there.
Families found their belongings and food supplies soaked in their tents. The children’s sandaled feet disappeared under the opaque brown water that flooded the camps, knee-deep in some places. The trucks moved slowly to avoid sending waves of mud towards the tents. Piles of garbage and sewage turned into waterfalls.
“We are drowning. I have no clothes to wear and no more mattresses,” said Um Salman Abu Qenas, a displaced mother in a Khan Younis tent camp. She said her family couldn’t sleep the night before because of the water in the tent.
Aid groups say not enough shelter aid is reaching Gaza during the ceasefire. Figures recently released by the Israeli military suggest it has broken a ceasefire provision to allow 600 aid trucks into Gaza per day, although Israel disputes this finding.
“Cold, overcrowded and unsanitary environments increase the risk of disease and infection,” the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said in a terse statement posted on X. “This suffering could be prevented by unimpeded humanitarian aid, including medical support and adequate shelter.”
Rains wreak havoc in Gaza
Sabreen Qudeeh, also in the Khan Younis camp in a squalid area known as Muwasi, said her family awoke to rain pouring from the ceiling of the tent and water from the street soaking their mattresses.
“My daughters were screaming,” she said.
Ahmad Abu Taha, who also lives in the camp, said there was not a single tent that escaped the flood. “The conditions are very bad, we have elderly, displaced and sick people in this camp,” he said.
Flooding in south-central Israel trapped more than a dozen people in their cars, according to Hebrew media. Israel’s rescue services, MDA, said two young girls were slightly injured when a tree fell on their school.
Contrasting scenes with Gaza showed how deeply the Israel-Hamas war has damaged the territory, destroying most of the houses. Gaza’s population of about 2 million is almost entirely displaced, with most people living in vast tent camps that stretch along the coast or nestled among the shells of damaged buildings, with no proper flood infrastructure and pits dug next to the tents as toilets.
At least three buildings in Gaza City, already damaged by Israeli bombing during the war, partially collapsed under the rain, the Palestinian Civil Defense said. He warned people not to stay in the damaged buildings, saying they too could fall on top of them.
The agency also said that since the storm began, they have received more than 2,500 emergency calls from citizens whose tents and shelters have been damaged in all parts of the Gaza Strip.
“We can’t control anything,” said Abu Mohammad Abu Taha, who said he spent the night calling for help from civil defense and the municipal government. “No one is responding. We want any party to come to our rescue so we don’t have more destruction than what we already have.”
Not enough help
Aid groups say Israel is not allowing enough aid into Gaza to begin rebuilding the territory after years of war.
Under the agreement, Israel agreed to abide by the aid provisions of an earlier cease-fire in January, which specified allowing 600 aid trucks each day into Gaza.
The January truce also stipulated that Israel let in an agreed number of caravans and tents. No caravans have yet entered Gaza during the ceasefire, said Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha, an Israeli group that advocates for Palestinians’ right to freedom of movement.
The Israeli defense body tasked with coordinating aid to Gaza, called COGAT, said on December 9, without providing evidence, that it had “recently” let 260,000 tents and tarpaulins and more than 1,500 truckloads of blankets and warm clothing into Gaza. The Shelter Cluster, an international coalition of aid providers led by the Norwegian Refugee Council, puts the number lower.
The UN and international non-governmental organizations are said to have introduced 15,590 tents into Gaza since the ceasefire began, and other countries have sent about 48,000. Many of the tents are not properly insulated, Shelter Cluster says.
Amjad al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that only a fraction of the 300,000 required tents had entered Gaza. He said Palestinians were in dire need of warmer winter clothes and accused Israel of blocking the entry of water pumps to help clear flooded shelters.
“All international parties should take responsibility for the conditions in Gaza,” he said. “There is a real danger to the people of Gaza at all levels.”
Hamas said in a statement that people’s tents had become worn out after more than two years of war. Khaled Mashaal, a Hamas leader, said in an interview with Al Jazeera that Gaza needs the rehabilitation of hospitals, the entry of heavy machinery to remove debris and the opening of the Rafah crossing – which remains closed after Israel said last week it would open shortly.
COGAT did not immediately respond to a request for comment on claims that Israel was not allowing water pumps or heavy machinery into Gaza.
Cease fire at a critical point
Mashaal called for the transition to the second, more complicated phase of the US-brokered ceasefire.
“Reconstruction should begin in the second phase because today there is suffering in terms of shelter and stability,” Mashaal said in comments posted by Hamas on social media.
Regional leaders said time was critical for the ceasefire agreement. But obstacles to progress remain.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday that the militants must first return the body of a final hostage.
Hamas said Israel must open key border crossings and end deadly strikes on the territory.
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Bassem Mroue reported from Beirut and Julia Frankel from Jerusalem. Natalie Melzer contributed to this report from Nahariya, Israel.