Heavy rains flooded tens of thousands of tents across Gaza on Saturday, the BBC reported. Displaced families used pots and pans to bail water out of their shelters. Some said they had been left with nowhere to sleep.
Gaza's Media Office said about 70,000 tents flooded within 12 hours of the storm's onset, The Eastleigh Voice reported. The office put preliminary damage at $3 million. It said dozens of walls had collapsed, injuring several people, some of them critically. It also warned that buildings damaged by Israeli bombardment were at risk of collapse.
Jonathan Veitch, the Unicef representative for Palestine, spoke to the BBC from Deir al-Balah. He called the situation "horrific" and said people were stopping aid workers in the street to beg for help. Israeli restrictions on heavy machinery and supplies such as engine oil were making things worse, he said. UN budget cuts had also left fewer tarpaulins, plastic sheeting and tents in the territory. Veitch warned that people died of hypothermia last winter. The same could happen again without urgent action, he said.
Israel has said it restricts items that could be used for military purposes. The Media Office blamed Israel's closure of border crossings for blocking shelter and reconstruction materials. It called on the international community and UN agencies to step in.
Residents described their fears to the AFP news agency. Maryam Odeh, 34, said her children ask where they will sleep and she has no answer. Khaled al-Najjar, 41, said families also fear the cold and the spread of disease.
The shortfall was clear before the storm hit. A November 5 report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Gaza needed about 121,000 tents and 1.7 million mattresses for the cold season. Aid groups held only about 2,800 tents and 4,993 mattresses inside Gaza, and no emergency shelter kits. OCHA reported $186.5 million in funding against the $269.7 million needed for winter aid.
About 90% of Gaza's residents have been displaced by the war, the BBC reported. A ceasefire took effect in October last year, but Israeli air strikes have continued almost daily. Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says 1,580 people have been killed since then, and 74,594 since the war began. A US-brokered peace plan has stalled.