The Voice of Ummah: The United Nations said on Tuesday that it agreed Israel’s response to the flooding disaster in Gaza had been insufficient, and that Tel Aviv should allow tents, drainage equipment and winter supplies into the enclave. Deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told Monday’s briefing, “Yes, we certainly agree,” adding that more temporary housing could be brought in, but that Israeli permission was needed to move it through checkpoints.
According to the UN humanitarian office, more than 150,000 tents purchased by aid organizations and member states are waiting outside Gaza to be dispatched, including about 117,000 from the Egyptian Relief Committee in al-Arish. Stocks of tents, tarpaulins, blankets and clothes inside Gaza are virtually exhausted.
Fear of further catastrophe after the Gaza floods
Ismail al-Thawabta, director of Gaza’s Government Media Office, told Anadolu that Israel had destroyed more than 93 percent of Gaza’s sewage and rainwater drainage networks during its genocidal war. “If the world does not intervene to allow in supplies to rebuild the infrastructure, Gaza will flood again this winter,” he said. He said ceasefire guarantors must press Israel to honour the agreed figure of 600 aid trucks a day; even on days when crossings were open, entries had not exceeded 30 percent of that total.
Read More: Israeli Forces Martyr 14-Year-Old Moataz Iyad Daghlas in Burqa, Withhold His Body
The weekend storm flooded 70,000 tents in its first 12 hours. The UN said an infant drowned, and that five Palestinians, including three children and two women, were martyred when a sand dune collapsed onto tents at the al-Berka Reservoir, west of Deir al-Balah. More than 26,000 households appealed for help after their shelters or belongings were damaged; more than 6,000 family shelters were destroyed and 17,400 damaged, and 3,900 households now have no shelter at all. Water rose to 1.5 metres in some places. Civil defence received 2,166 distress calls but could answer only 218. On Saturday, UN personnel visiting a displacement site in Gaza City had to take cover when gunfire erupted nearby. Al-Thawabta said the search for people still missing under the debris in Deir al-Balah was continuing.
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