Winter turns into a humanitarian disaster 20 deaths and thousands displaced in the open in Gaza

The storm that struck the Gaza Strip has turned into a humanitarian disaster, resulting in the deaths of 20 people, the collapse of 49 residential buildings, and leaving thousands of families homeless after more than 127,000 tents were flooded.

A spokesperson for the Gaza Municipality confirmed that thousands of families are now without shelter after their tents were flooded by the torrential rains that hit the Strip, calling for pressure on Israel to open the crossings and allow the entry of urgent aid.

In detail, a young woman died when a wall of a damaged house collapsed onto her tent near the Gaza City port, while a palm tree fell on a family’s tent in the Al-Sit Amira camp in Deir al-Balah due to the severe storms.

Civil defense teams recorded the deaths of two children due to the extreme cold inside the tents of displaced people, while three people remain missing under the rubble of buildings that collapsed as a result of the storm.

The Government Press Office revealed in an official statement that Israeli authorities have allowed only 19,764 aid trucks to enter out of a required 48,000 over an 80-day period, representing a compliance rate of just 42%. Fuel shipments have reached only 425 trucks out of the 4,000 needed, a compliance rate of a mere 10%.

The office warned that continued storms, coupled with the fragile and damaged infrastructure and sewage networks, will lead to environmental and health disasters and flash floods that could claim more lives.