Gaza’s displaced battle flooding amid days of heavy rain

In the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, the already desperate situation for many residents has worsened following days of heavy rainfall.

Witnesses and local reports said tent camps sheltering displaced people have been flooded. The storm system, which began on Tuesday, is expected to continue through Friday.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have lost their homes in more than two years of war between the Israeli military and Hamas and are living in makeshift shelters.

A ceasefire has been in place since October 10, although sporadic incidents have continued to cause fatalities in Gaza.

The torrential rains have now brought a new level of hardship, with a clinic in Gaza reporting that a baby had died of hypothermia.

A father told dpa that his children slept in soaked clothes and shivered through the night after floodwaters swept through a tent camp in Gaza City. “I couldn’t do anything,” Raid Shamlach said on Thursday.

Amal Shabat, 33, who is sheltering in another neighbourhood, said her family of five has been using buckets to remove water from their tent. Their bedding is completely drenched, she said. “We urgently need to rebuild Gaza. We cannot imagine living in these tattered tents for years.”