Palestinian Civil Defense Receives Over 1,500 Distress Calls Amid Gaza Floods

The Palestinian Civil Defense announced it has received more than 1,500 distress calls since the current weather emergency began, warning of escalating humanitarian conditions in Gaza Strip due to heavy rains that flooded displacement camps.

The Government Media Office reported that approximately 70,000 tents were inundated with water during the first twelve hours of the storm, with preliminary material losses estimated at around three million dollars. Gaza Municipality announced that roughly 60 millimeters of rain fell on the city between Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.

Residential buildings that had previously been damaged by Israeli bombardment collapsed in Gaza City and the Bureij and Nuseirat camps, while two people were injured by a wall collapse in the northern part of the sector. The Civil Defense deployed 30 field teams across different areas, but warned of its inability to respond to all reports due to a shortage of equipment, machinery, and fuel.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that the floods pose an immediate danger to displaced persons in low-lying areas and damaged buildings, calling for the immediate entry of winter supplies, heavy equipment, spare parts, and fuel to strengthen humanitarian response.

The Government Media Office clarified that approximately 162,000 out of 270,000 tents have become unusable, amid an acute shelter crisis requiring urgent intervention to provide safe refuges for hundreds of thousands of displaced persons as winter approaches.