GAZA: Heavy rain in Gaza on Tuesday brought new concerns and challenges for Palestinians, many of whom are homeless and living in makeshift tents after weeks of Israeli bombardment.
The start of the rainy season and the possibility of flooding increased fears that the densely populated enclave’s sewage system will be overwhelmed and disease will spread.
At a UN shelter in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the rain brought dismay for displaced people who woke to find the clothes they put out to dry the night had been drenched by rain.
“We were in a house built of concrete and now we are in a tent,” said Fayeza Srour, who sought safety in the south after Israel began its military offensive in response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters who entered southern Israel from Gaza.
“The nylon tarps, the tent and the wood will not resist any flooding... People sleeping on the floor, what will they do? Where will they go?“
Winters can be wet and cold in Gaza, and the enclave is sometimes hit by flooding.
Another displaced Gazan, Karim Mreish, said people at the shelter were praying for the rain to stop.
“Those children, those women, those elderly pray God that it doesn’t rain,” he said. “If it does it will be very difficult and words will fail to describe our suffering.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) said last week that Gaza faced an increased risk of disease spreading because Israeli air bombardments had disrupted the health system, limited access to clean water and caused people to crowd in shelters.
It voiced concern on Tuesday about the prospect of rain causing flooding and overwhelming already meagre and damaged sewage facilities.
“We’ve already got outbreaks of diarrheal diseases,” WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said in Geneva.
She said there were more than 30,000 cases of diarrhea in a period when WHO would normally expect 2,000 cases.
“We’ve got so much infrastructural damage. We’ve got a lack of clean water. We’ve got people very, very crowded together. This is another reason why we are begging for a cease-fire to happen now,” she said.
Ahmed Bayram, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Refugee Council, said the start of the rainy season could mark “the most difficult week in Gaza since the (military) escalation began.”
“Heavy rains will mean more impeded movement for people and rescue teams,” he said. “It will make it harder to save people stuck under the rubble, or to bury the dead, all of this amidst ceaseless bombardment and a fuel shortage catastrophe.”
THE ‘HERE AND NOW’
Israel vowed to wipe out Hamas after the Oct.7 attack, in which Israel said over 1,200 people were killed and about 240 were taken hostage. Medical officials in Gaza say over 11,000 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since then.
Facing the daunting scale of the humanitarian needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, aid organizations have been unable to plan for the challenges posed by rain and flooding.
Juliette Touma, Director of Communications at the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), said the organization was focused on meeting the population’s needs “here and now.”
“We’re barely able to make it from one hour to the next ourselves, because the situation on the ground is so, so, so desperate,” she said.
Touma said just a small amount of rain could cause the streets of Gaza to flood, given the sewage system’s inability to absorb water.
“This is on a normal day. This is not when half of Gaza, if not more, is in rubble,” she said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had also been unable to plan far beyond Gazans’ daily needs. “The situation is so volatile and complicated as a result of the hostilities that we have focused really squarely on the humanitarian consequences as they shift from one day to the next,” said William Schomburg, head of the ICRC delegation in Gaza.
The rain brought relief for some displaced Palestinians in the central Gaza Strip town of Deir Al-Balah who had not been able to drink clean and fresh water in the past weeks. Some placed plastic buckets outside their tents to gather rainwater to drink.
“We have been drinking salty water for 30 days. There has been no fresh water. I have just collected this from the rainwater,” said Um Mohammad Shahin.
Heavy rain in Gaza brings new problems and fears for Palestinians
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Heavy rain in Gaza brings new problems and fears for Palestinians
- Rain complicates rescue operations, aid deliveries while llooding and overcrowding could spread disease
Gaza’s Rafah border crossing has reopened but few people get through
- Restrictions negotiated by Israeli, Egyptian, Palestinian and international officials meant that only 50 people would be allowed to return to Gaza each day
- Amid confusion around the reopening, the Rafah crossing was closed Friday and Saturday
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip: When the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt finally reopened this week, Palestinian officials heralded it as a “window of hope” after two years of war as a fragile ceasefire deal moves forward.
But that hope has been sidetracked by disagreements over who should be allowed through, hourslong delays and Palestinian travelers’ reports of being handcuffed and interrogated by Israeli soldiers.
Far fewer people than expected have crossed in both directions. Restrictions negotiated by Israeli, Egyptian, Palestinian and international officials meant that only 50 people would be allowed to return to Gaza each day and 50 medical patients — along with two companions for each — would be allowed to leave.
But over the first four days of operations, just 36 Palestinians requiring medical care were allowed to leave for Egypt, plus 62 companions, according to United Nations data. Palestinian officials say nearly 20,000 people in Gaza are seeking to leave for medical care that they say is not available in the war-shattered territory.
Amid confusion around the reopening, the Rafah crossing was closed Friday and Saturday.
Hours of questioning
The Rafah crossing is a lifeline for Gaza, providing the only link to the outside world not controlled by Israel. Israel seized it in May 2024, though traffic through the crossing was heavily restricted even before that.
Several women who managed to return to Gaza after its reopening recounted to The Associated Press harsh treatment by Israeli authorities and an Israeli-backed Palestinian armed group, Abu Shabab. A European Union mission and Palestinian officials run the border crossing, and Israel has its screening facility some distance away.
Rana Al-Louh, anxious to return two years after fleeing to Egypt with her wounded sister, said Israeli screeners asked multiple times why she wanted to go back to Gaza during questioning that lasted more than six hours. She said she was blindfolded and handcuffed, an allegation made by others.
“I told them I returned to Palestine because my husband and kids are there,” Al-Louh said. Interrogators told her Gaza belonged to Israel and that “the war would return, that Hamas won’t give up its weapons. I told him I didn’t care, I wanted to return.”
Asked about such reports, Israel’s military replied that “no incidents of inappropriate conduct, mistreatment, apprehensions or confiscation of property by the Israeli security establishment are known.”
The Shin Bet intelligence agency and COGAT, the Israeli military body that handles Palestinian civilian affairs and coordinates the crossings, did not respond to questions about the allegations.
The long questioning Wednesday delayed the return to Gaza of Al-Louh and others until nearly 2 a.m. Thursday.
Later that day, UN human rights officials noted a “consistent pattern of ill-treatment, abuse and humiliation by Israeli military forces.”
“After two years of utter devastation, being able to return to their families and what remains of their homes in safety and dignity is the bare minimum,” Ajith Sunghay, the agency’s human rights chief for the occupied Palestinian territories, said in a statement.
Numbers below targets
Officials who negotiated the Rafah reopening were clear that the early days of operation would be a pilot. If successful, the number of people crossing could increase.
Challenges quickly emerged. On the first day, Monday, Israeli officials said 71 patients and companions were approved to leave Gaza, with 46 Palestinians approved to enter. Inside Gaza, however, organizers with the World Health Organization were able to arrange transportation for only 12 people that day, so other patients stayed behind, according to a person briefed on the operations who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Israeli officials insisted that no Palestinians would be allowed to enter Gaza until all the departures were complete. Then they said that since only 12 people had left Gaza, only 12 could enter, leaving the rest to wait on the Egyptian side of the border overnight, according to the person briefed on the operations.
Crossings picked up on the second day, when 40 people were allowed to leave Gaza and 40 to enter. But delays mounted as many returning travelers had more luggage than set out in the agreement reached by negotiators and items that were forbidden, including cigarettes and water and other liquids like perfume. Each traveler is allowed to carry one mobile phone and a small amount of money if they submit a declaration 24 hours ahead of travel.
Each time a Palestinian was admitted to Egypt, Israeli authorities allowed one more into Gaza, drawing out the process.
The problems continued Wednesday and Thursday, with the numbers allowed to cross declining. The bus carrying Wednesday’s returnees from the crossing did not reach its drop-off location in Gaza until 1:40 a.m. Thursday.
Still, some Palestinians said they were grateful to have made the journey.
As Siham Omran’s return to Gaza stretched into early Thursday, she steadied herself with thoughts of her children and husband, whom she had not seen for 20 months. She said she was exhausted, and stunned by Gaza’s devastation.
“This is a journey of suffering. Being away from home is difficult,” she said. “Thank God we have returned to our country, our homes, and our homeland.”
Now she shares a tent with 15 family members, using her blouse for a pillow.
