Heavy rain has flooded tents for displaced Palestinians across Gaza, bringing more misery to 2.3 million people who have been facing nonstop Israeli bombardment since last October.
“We ran in the middle of the night, the rainwater flooded the tent, the food is gone, the kids screamed and I am afraid they will get sick,” said Rami, 37, a Gaza City man displaced at a former football stadium.
The Palestinian Civil Defence said thousands of displaced people were affected by the seasonal flooding and demanded new tents and caravans from aid donors to shield them.
“Rainfall has caused severe damage to tents housing thousands of displaced people with water flowing inside the tents and damaging luggage and mattresses,” Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said in a statement on Sunday.
“The current situation signals a real humanitarian catastrophe if immediate intervention does not take place,” he warned.
The spokesman appealed to the United Nations and the international community to quickly intervene to provide tents and caravans for displaced civilians in Gaza during winter.
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed more than 44,000 people, and uprooted nearly the entire population at least once while reducing wide swaths of the narrow coastal territory to rubble.
On Thursday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its brutal war on Gaza.