Gaza Storm: Floods Hit Tent Camps, Ceasefire Threatened

Storm Byron has caused widespread flooding in Gaza’s tent camps, impacting tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians and exposing the ongoing humanitarian crisis despite a recent ceasefire. Families reported soaked possessions, submerged tents, and unsanitary conditions as the storm exacerbated existing hardships.

Gaza Tent Camps Flooded After Storm Byron

Families discovered their possessions and food supplies soaked inside tents. Children waded through opaque brown floodwater, with water reaching knee-deep in some areas. Dirt roads transformed into mud, and rubbish and sewage flowed like waterfalls.

“We have been drowned. I don’t have clothes to wear and we have no mattresses left,” said Um Salman Abu Qenas, a displaced mother in a Khan Younis tent camp. She stated her family was unable to sleep the night before due to water entering their tent.

Aid organizations report insufficient shelter materials have been allowed into Gaza during the truce, worsening conditions as the natural disaster unfolded. Recent figures from Israel’s military indicate it has not met the ceasefire requirement of allowing 600 aid trucks daily into Gaza.

“Cold, overcrowded, and unsanitary environments heighten the risk of illness and infection,” the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on X.

Sabreen Qudeeh, in the Khan Younis camp in the al-Mawasi area, said her family awoke to rain leaking through their tent ceiling and water soaking their mattresses.

“My little daughters were screaming,” she said.

Ahmad Abu Taha, another camp resident, reported that not a single tent escaped flooding. “Conditions are very bad, we have old people, displaced, and sick people inside this camp,” he said.

The Palestinian Civil Defence reported that at least three previously damaged buildings in Gaza City partially collapsed due to the rain. They warned people against staying in damaged structures due to the risk of further collapse.

The agency has received more than 2,500 distress calls from Palestinians with damaged tents and shelters since the storm began.

Palestinians labored to bail water from their tents using buckets and mops.

Aliaa Bahtiti said her eight-year-old son “was soaked overnight, and in the morning he had turned blue, sleeping on water”. An inch of water covered her tent floor. “We cannot buy food, covers, towels, or sheets to sleep on.”

Baraka Bhar tended to her three-month-old twins inside her tent as rain poured outside. One twin suffers from hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid in the brain.

“Our tents are worn out … and they leak rainwater,” she said. “We should not lose our children this winter.”