Heavy rain worsens misery of displaced Palestinians
Heavy rains overnight piled more problems onto Gaza’s displaced as downpours flooded tents, washed some of them away, and forced families out of their sleep.
Some placed water buckets on the ground to protect mats from leaks and dug trenches to drain water away from their tents. The price of new tents and plastic sheeting to prevent leaks shot up.
Ahmed Al-Burai, 30, said people made their tents of used sacks of flour, worn-out clothes, and nylon bags. As soon as it rained the water and wind blew many tents away and flooded others.
“Everything is drowned, the blankets, the food, and the people in just a few hours of rain,” Burai told Reuters over the phone from Al-Mawasi, a humanitarian-designated area in the southern Gaza Strip.
“Most of the displaced can’t afford the new prices of tents and plastic sheeting. Just two days ago the price of plastic sheeting stood at 100 to 200 shekels ($27 to $54) and today it has risen to 700 and 800 shekels ($189 to $216) because of the greed of merchants,” Burai said.
More shelters and supplies to help people cope with the coming winter were needed, the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said.
“As autumn begins, plastic and fabric are not enough to protect people against the rain and the cold,” the relief agency posted on X.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million have been displaced in nearly a year of warfare as Israeli air and artillery strikes have reduced much of the Palestinian enclave to rubble. More than 41,300 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli assault, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The war, the deadliest bout in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was triggered on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.