Charities warn of lack of protection amid health fears for more than 940,000 displaced people living in flood-prone areas
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been left in waterlogged and damaged tents after deadly storms at the weekend, while 150,000 new shelters are held outside Gaza awaiting Israeli approval to enter, aid agencies have said.
At least four Palestinian children and woman were killed as heavy rains and wind battered fragile, leaky tents. Thousands have been left without shelter and sanitation infrastructure has been destroyed, with sewage spewing into people’s tents.
“All our clothes were soaked. My kids are all sick and I can’t afford to buy them more clothes,” said Raed Jamal, a displaced Palestinian. “Watching them suffering in the cold is heartbreaking.”
“These conditions are so difficult, the whole night I had to use pots to collect rainwater because it was falling on us.”
He shared videos with the Guardian of his tent shaking in the wind as rain poured through holes in its roof.
Aid workers warn disease will spread rapidly unless families are quickly supplied with new shelters and ways to keep warm.
The UK-based charity Medical Aid for Palestinians said it was concerned about a rise in health problems because families were living in flooded tents with nowhere else to go.
