RAFAH, Palestinian Territories: Torrential rains lashed a tent camp for displaced people in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, where frightened Palestinian children can no longer distinguish between thunder and Israeli bombardment.
The storm fell overnight Monday to Tuesday in the southernmost Gaza Strip city, adding to the anguish of Palestinians who fled the war between Hamas and Israel, many without warm clothes, blankets or proper footwear.
Oum Abdullah Alwan said her children “screamed in fear” because “we can’t tell the difference between the sound of rain and the sound of shelling.”
“’It’s shelling, Mum, we have to run,’” one of the children told Alwan, who was displaced from Jabalia further north, and now lives with more than a dozen family members in a tent in the makeshift camp.
She asked her son: “Is that the sound of shelling?” He told her it was thunder.
The rain, accompanied by biting winds, soaked foam mattresses and the meagre belongings of the camp’s residents.
“We are 14 people living in a tent and we cannot find a single dry mattress to sleep on, or even a dry blanket. We have been soaked in rainwater all night,” said Alwan.
Like other parents, she said she huddled with her children, embracing them to quell their shivers and “feel a little warmth.”
“How much longer will we live in this torment? How much longer?,” she cried out.
The war, now in its sixth month, has devastated vast swathes of Gaza and pushed hundreds of thousands to flee their homes seeking safety.
Many have flooded into Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to launch a ground offensive as he hunts Hamas militants.
The war broke out after an unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7 resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel believes 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 who are presumed dead.
Israel retaliated with relentless air, ground and sea bombardment on the Gaza Strip that has killed at least 31,819 people, mostly women and children, the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory says.
Hundreds of thousands of people are now also on the brink of famine, the United Nations and international aid groups have warned.
An estimated 1.5 million Palestinians now live in Rafah, most of them displaced from other parts of the Gaza Strip and living in a sea of makeshift tents.
In the camp, a group of children walked past the tents wearing sandals or even barefoot.
“I’ve told you many times not to play here,” an old man shouted at them. “It’s (the water is) dirty. You’ll get sick.”
Residents complained that rainwater was seeping through the tents, drenching them and their belongings and making them ill.
Many tried to patch up their improvised homes with whatever they could find.
Mahmoud Saad gathered sand and pushed it against the edge of his family’s tent to stop the water, with help from his daughter Aya.
“Winter is usually a blessed season, but not for Gaza,” said Aya.
Further away, Akram Al-Arian, who is displaced from Khan Yunis, said when the rain fell he too was confused, thinking it was another Israeli bombardment.
“I held my children close to me like a hen protecting her chicks,” Arian said.
“I didn’t know what to do. I’m tired of living in a tent.”
Abir Al-Shaer, also originally from Khan Yunis, said her children had “developed a psychological obsession with rockets.”
“Every sound is a rocket sound to them, even when the tent flap flutters in the wind, they think it’s the sound of a rocket.”