A polar storm threatens thousands of displaced people in the Gaza Strip

The Gaza government warned on Tuesday of a polar storm threatening hundreds of thousands of displaced families in the Strip over the next 72 hours, calling on the world to intervene to avert the catastrophic humanitarian situation there.

Residents of the Gaza Strip are more apprehensive than ever before about the arrival of the new polar storm, “Birun,” whose heavy rains are expected to begin on Wednesday. This threatens to flood displacement tents and shelters, as well as many areas in the Strip, due to the extensive damage Israel has inflicted on infrastructure.

Families have begun reinforcing their tents and tightening their stakes, covering them with plastic sheeting in the hope of preventing rainwater from leaking in. Others have placed bags filled with dirt to divert the watercourses that form from the heavy rainfall and prevent them from entering their tents. In previous storms, thousands of families living in displacement camps, as well as those whose homes were damaged by Israeli airstrikes during the war, were displaced after their neighborhoods were flooded by rainwater, ruining their food and clothing. These displaced people are living in dilapidated tents because the occupation authorities have prevented the entry of hundreds of thousands of new tents and mobile homes intended to shelter them.

The Government Media Office stated that it is closely monitoring the expected effects and repercussions of the storm that will enter the Gaza Strip, which poses a real risk of further flooding of tents and a renewal of the tragedy endured by more than 1.5 million displaced people who have been living in dilapidated tents for over a year without any real solutions or alternatives. He emphasized that the polar depression will bring floods and torrents due to the expected heavy rainfall, along with strong winds that will uproot the tents of displaced people, high sea waves, and thunderstorms. He stated that these indicators clearly point to the Gaza Strip facing “serious climatic repercussions that could cause widespread damage to tens of thousands of families living in tents and makeshift shelters that offer no protection from the winter cold or the harshness of the storms.”

He said: “The coming hours will document heartbreaking scenes of families struggling to survive inside tents that cannot withstand the rain or wind, amid shameful international silence and the absence of any serious intervention to provide the minimum protection and relief for the displaced.” He pointed out that this climatic reality exacerbates the humanitarian catastrophe resulting from the genocidal war and the unjust siege imposed on our Palestinian people, holding the occupation fully responsible for exposing the displaced to the dangers of the climate in light of its closure of the crossings and its prevention of the entry of relief and shelter materials, including preventing the entry of 300,000 tents and mobile homes, in addition to the absence of alternative shelters, which perpetuates the deprivation of hundreds of thousands of their right to safe housing in accordance with international humanitarian law.