Heavy rain and cold weather across the Gaza Strip has caused flooding, complicating an already difficult humanitarian situation for Palestinians, the overwhelming majority of whom live in tents and other temporary shelters after two years of war.
The Abu Jazar family woke up Thursday morning in Khan Younis, south Gaza, to find their 8-month-old baby Rahaf dead of hypothermia caused by the extreme cold, according to her parents and the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Her parents told CNN that their tent flooded overnight. The baby’s mother, Hejar Abu Jazar, wept and caressed Rahaf as she died in her arms, continuing to moan in despair. She said she fed her daughter the night before.
“She was perfectly fine. I nursed her last night and suddenly I noticed that she was freezing and shivering. She was healthy, my love,” she cried.
Gaza City municipal authorities on Wednesday warned residents to avoid low-lying areas, saying the rains could once again force thousands of families to flee temporary shelters without adequate alternatives.
“Given this serious situation, the city once again calls on the international community and humanitarian organizations to urgently intervene,” the city said in a statement.
Haytham Herzallah from Palestinian Medical Assistance said on Wednesday that many of the areas where internally displaced people live are below road level, and rainwater is collecting around and inside families’ tents.
“The situation is further exacerbated by sewage flooding, with people exposed to both rainwater and wastewater while living in shelters with little protection from the cold or water,” Herzala said.
“Since the ceasefire, no supplies to improve living conditions have entered Gaza. Even the few tents that have arrived are designed for the desert environment and do not provide protection from the rain or provide warmth,” he added.
Dr. Munir al-Bash, head of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, said the storm was the fourth tragedy to affect Gaza residents, after killings, displacement and “exile without a future.”
“Every winter storm that hits Gaza brings suffering far beyond the weather, with people living in destroyed homes and torn tents without walls or heat,” he said. “Amid overcrowding and severe shortages of food and medicine, the cold and rain pose a direct threat to health.”
The rain continued on Thursday, with Gaza’s civil defense agency recording that “entire camps” from north to south were submerged under water.
CNN footage from one such camp in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza showed dozens of dilapidated tents standing on wet ground in muddy water.
Umm Ibrahim Ubaid, sitting in a soaking wet tent, described a rough night for him and his children.
“Last night was very difficult,” she told CNN. “We put the kids to bed and the water engulfed us. You can feel the bedding and the amount of water in it. The other kids stayed up all night trying to get rid of the water.”
“There is no life at all,” she added. “We have no life.”
CNN footage shows children helping adults dig and remove wet mud. Some people are jumping barefoot in large puddles.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said earlier this week that around 850,000 people were evacuated to 761 evacuation sites in the Gaza Strip, which is particularly vulnerable to flooding.
Residents’ belongings were also submerged, as were many tents submerged in the floodwaters. Mahmoud Abu Salah lamented that what little food and flour he had was damaged by the rain.
“Where are the people responsible for us? They are in a deep sleep. We only have God,” he said.
CNN’s Abir Salman and Ibrahim Daman contributed to this report.
