‘Living this life is another war’: Thousands in tents endure contaminated floods, Gaza officials flag risk of disease

Tens of thousands of families awoke in the Gaza Strip on Saturday to sodden belongings and bedding after the first night of heavy winter rainfall swept through the region.

For the more than one million people who have been displaced by two years of Israel’s genocidal war, the downpour on Friday and Saturday has rendered already unlivable conditions even more miserable.

The floods over the past two days were particularly dangerous as Israel has destroyed much of Gaza’s water and waste management infrastructure. When rain began to fall, it sent hazardous waste rushing toward tent camps, a municipal official told Mada Masr.

As winter sets in, people in Gaza will become increasingly susceptible to waterborne disease, said the same official, pointing to the high likelihood of water contamination. Local authorities are unable to repair this vital equipment as Israel continues to bar the entry of tools and equipment into the strip.

Um Mohmaed al-Ghalban and her family are sheltering in a tent in west Gaza City in a makeshift camp that was flooded by Friday night’s rains. “We were woken by the water that entered while we were sleeping,” she told Mada Masr. “My children got soaked. We tried to gather what we could of our bedding to keep it dry, but the rainfall was persistent and got almost everything in the tent.”

“We spent the whole night trying to get the water out and to fasten the tent pegs so that it wouldn’t collapse on our heads. But even in the morning, the rain continued,” she said.

For Nasser Abu Awda, who is now living in the same area in Gaza City, the rainfall left him and his family without cover over their heads.

“My tent was already in bad condition after two years of war. The rainfall finished it off,” he told Mada Masr. “I spent the whole night trying to get our stuff swept away by the flooding and to stop-up the holes in the tent, but it didn’t work.”

Gaza’s Civil Defense Agency spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said that conditions were just as terrible for thousands of more people.

“We get hundreds of distress calls per hour from displaced people who either need help to save their tents or whose tents have been swept away by the flood water,” he told Mada Masr. “But the civil defense's capacity is non-existent.”

Israel has repeatedly targeted civil defense agency vehicles throughout the war, leaving the agency’s teams without the equipment they need to conduct their life-saving work.

With weather conditions set to worsen in the coming weeks, it is not just residents living in makeshift tents that are at risk.

Basal pointed to the hundreds of buildings that Israeli airstrikes left structurally unsound, which he said could be toppled over at any moment due to the weather and strong winds.

Gaza needs half a million tents at least in order to shelter the displaced, he said, and these are needed immediately before the winter really sets in.

Limited supplies 

Though Israeli authorities said earlier this week that 90,000 tents and tarpaulins have entered the strip “over the last few months,” Occupation authorities continue to limit the amount of aid that crosses into Gaza.

“Millions of urgently needed shelter items remain stuck in Jordan, Egypt and Israel, awaiting approvals to enter Gaza,” United Nations Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said at a New York conference on Friday.

Local authorities in Gaza also said that people have limited access to drinking water and waste disposal services, sounding the alarm that the weather conditions on the horizon could mean that disease could spread quickly.

The Occupation has destroyed around 80 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure, especially in the Gaza Governorate and the north, Gaza Municipality Spokesperson Hosny Mahna told Mada Masr.

A lack of waste disposal capacity means that for many displaced people, their tents are now being surrounded by contaminated floodwater, he said, pointing to the heightened danger of disease and pollution.

Mahna also said there are few resources to repair damaged infrastructure, as the Occupation is preventing the needed tools and equipment from entering the strip.

“What did we do to deserve all this?” asked Um Mohmaed. “Where is everyone while all this is happening to us? The war on Gaza hasn’t finished. Living this life is another war.”