Rains flood thousands of displaced families’ tents in Gaza

The enclave’s civil defence says it received about 1,500 distress calls in 10 hours as a storm swept through displacement camps. Heavy rain has flooded thousands of tents across the Gaza Strip, forcing displaced Palestinian families out into the cold as the first winter storm of the season swept through the besieged territory. Gaza’s civil defence agency said its crews received about 1,500 distress calls in just 10 hours after the rain began early Saturday, with water levels in several shelter sites rising by 30-40 cm (12-16in).

“What we feared has actually happened,” Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told Al Jazeera. “A few shelter centres were completely flooded, and everyone inside them has now been forced out into the unknown.” Basal said premature babies, the elderly and the sick were most at risk. “Those living in tents are at risk of death at any moment, and of illness at any moment,” he said.

The Civil Defence said rescuers had evacuated residents of a building in the central Nuseirat area that partially collapsed in the strong winds and rain.