Gazans in trouble as rain floods tents for the displaced
- 25 Nov 2024
The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders to residents in areas of an eastern Gaza City suburb, setting off a new wave of displacement on Sunday, and a Gaza hospital director was injured in an Israeli drone attack, Palestinian medics said.
Adding to the miseries of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, most of whom have been repeatedly displaced, heavy winter rain flooded hundreds of tents across the enclave, spoiling food and sweeping away plastic and cloth sheeting that had protected them against the elements.’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,’ Rami, 37, a Gaza City man displaced at a former soccer stadium, told Reuters via a messaging app.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said thousands of displaced people were impacted by the seasonal flooding and demanded new tents and caravans from aid donors to shield them.
The new orders for the Shejaia suburb posted by the Israeli army spokesperson on X on Saturday night were blamed on Hamas firing rockets from that heavily built-up district in the north of the Gaza Strip.
‘For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the south,’ the military’s post said. The rocket volley on Saturday was claimed by Hamas’ armed wing, which said it had targeted an Israeli army base over the border.
Footage circulated on social and Palestinian media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed residents leaving Shejaia on donkey carts and rickshaws, with others, including children carrying backpacks, walking.
Families living in the targeted areas began fleeing their homes after nightfall on Saturday and into Sunday’s early hours, residents and Palestinian media said — the latest in multiple waves of displacement since the war began 13 months ago.In central Gaza, health officials said at least 10 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the urban camps of Al Maghazi and Al Bureij since Saturday night.
In a separate development, top EU diplomat Josep Borrell called for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hizbollah war while on a visit to Lebanon on Sunday, as the group claimed attacks deep into Israel.
In the Lebanese capital, Borrell held talks with parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, who has led mediation efforts on behalf of ally Hizbollah.
“We see only one possible way ahead: an immediate ceasefire and the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701,” Borrell said.
“Lebanon is on the brink of collapse,” he warned. An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center on Sunday killed one soldier and wounded 18 others, the Lebanese military said
Agencies
