They survived almost 800 days of warbut a storm He took their lives. The atmospheric phenomenon Byron has been devastating the Gaza Stripwith intense rains and winds. In his wake, he has killed 12 people in the last 24 hours. Among them, there are two you drink who have died from hypothermia. The force of the storm has caused shops, houses, and buildings to collapse, suffocating those who took refuge in its ruins. The stores that are still standing are totally floodedadding more misery to a town plagued by a tragedy that does not end. In Israelwhere the floods seem to subside after several catastrophic days, two men have lost their lives.
Water is everywhere. It mixes with dust of destructionand becomes a mud that reaches every corner of the precarious tents. The same ones that served as refuge for tens of thousands of Gazans and that, now, are no longer worth anything. During this Friday, even more are expected floods, heavy rain and hailwhich would endanger some 850,000 people, who live poorly in around 761 improvised camps throughout the enclave. Among them, there are thousands of children, like Rahaf Abu Jazar. At just eight months old, he died from exposure to brutal weather conditions after his family’s tent in Khan Yunis, in the south, flooded on Thursday.
Just a few hours later, the baby Taim al Khawaja He died in the Shati refugee camp, in Gaza City, in the center of the enclave. To the west of this same city, he has died Hadil al-Masrinine years old, in a shelter for displaced people. As the storm continues to hit the Strip, this number may increase. The Gaza Government Media Office has denounced “the collapse of at least 13 houses“, especially in two of the hardest hit neighborhoods in Gaza Citywhere Israeli troops carried out a brutal military offensive until the hours before the ceasefire came into effect two months ago. “The teams of civil defense are still responding to hundreds of calls for help,” the office statement added.
More than 27,000 tents
“We have registered the flood and destruction of more than 27,000 tents belonging to displaced people, which were flooded, swept away by floods or blown down by strong winds,” he added. Furthermore, he denounced that the Israeli authorities continue blocking the entry of shelter materialsmobile homes and 300,000 tents to Gaza. Buildings, whose structures had survived the most brutal bombing campaign in modern history, and walls have collapsed due to strong winds and heavy rains on the Palestinians who took refuge inside. Even part of the land near the gazati coastwhere hundreds of tents are installed, has given way to the storm.
The Gaza Ministry of the Interior and National Security has reported that operational teams have received more than 4,300 distress calls of Gazans from around the enclave since the start of the storm. Several people follow missing and are believed to be under the rubble. “What is happening now is a wake up call so that everyone assumes their responsibilities,” the ministry statement said. The ceasefire agreement that came into force in mid-October obliged the Israeli authorities to allow the more humanitarian aid entering Gaza. Several human rights organizations denounce that the agreed average of 600 trucks per day is not being met, and that is being reflected on the ground at this time.
“A political decision”
“People who have nothing need everything and suddenly face this disastrous storm,” he denounced. Jonathan Fowlerspokesman for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWAfor its acronym in English) to Al Jazeera from Amman. Israel has specifically prohibited this agency from bringing any aid into Gaza. “We have shelter supplies for more than a million people that they are outside the Gaza Strip and that we can bring immediately if we are allowed; Denying us the possibility of bringing that help is a political decision,” he stated. At the same time, Fowler has warned about the risks of having “lakes of raw sewage everywhere“, since the infrastructure to treat it has been destroyed by Israel.
In turn, the Israeli population has been suffering from the impact of Byron for days, although they have greater resources to cope. On Wednesday night the Israeli Army entered lockdown and limited its activities in the face of the storm. A 53-year-old man was found dead with signs of hypothermia on Thursday in Netanya, in the center of the country, according to emergency services, and another man in his 50s lost his life from severe hypothermia in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem this Friday. They are also looking for a missing teenager near the Yarkon River. Dozens of houses and shops have been flooded during the last three days of heavy rain.
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