Palestine Weekly: West Bank on fire – and Gaza’s tents under water

The first major storm of the season flooded about 70,000 tents in Gaza within 12 hours, killing at least five people and causing about $3m in damage, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office. The storm hit over the weekend. By Monday, Gaza’s Civil Defence had logged more than 2,100 distress calls, warning that more than 2,000 buildings risk collapse.

Nearly 400,000 displaced people shelter in areas judged highly vulnerable. Israel is blocking 60,000 mobile homes and 200,000 tents, allowing only 20,000 tents into Gaza, where about 85 percent of homes have been destroyed or damaged by Israel’s three-year genocidal war. Gaza’s Crossings and Borders Authority said Israel also let in no aid trucks or commercial goods on November 6 and 7; five trucks of cooking gas entered the next day.

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says Israel notified the UN on November 1 that it would suspend shipments from Egypt, and aid groups warn daily cooked meals could fall from about 600,000 to 330,000 as a result.