Civil Defense in Gaza sector warns of humanitarian catastrophe as low-pressure system intensifies
Civil Defense Authority warns of humanitarian disaster threatening displaced persons due to camps flooding from rain and lack of equipment
Translated by Qiyas from القبس — Original source
The Civil Defense Agency in the Gaza Strip warned today, Saturday, of a humanitarian catastrophe threatening the lives of thousands of displaced Palestinians as the impact of a low-pressure system intensified, causing displacement camps and shelter centers to flood with rainwater across various areas of the Strip. In a press statement, Gaza’s Civil Defense said it had received more than 1,500 distress calls since the onset of the low-pressure system, from displaced persons whose tents and shelter centers were damaged in different governorates. It confirmed that entire camps had been submerged since dawn, amid harrowing scenes of displaced families, including children and women, whose tents were being swept away by rainwater.
The agency added that its teams are facing significant difficulties in coping with the scale of the disaster due to a shortage of equipment, machinery, fuel, and essential resources needed to respond to distress calls, noting that it cannot tackle the consequences of the low-pressure system alone. It called on local and international institutions to intervene urgently to provide the necessary equipment, machinery, fuel, and relief supplies to save displaced people and protect the lives of children, women, the elderly, and the sick from the dangers of flash floods and the flooding of shelters.
The suffering of displaced persons is worsening with the onset of winter, amid the deterioration of tents, lack of protection from rain and cold, and the declining humanitarian and living conditions in the Strip, which places thousands of families at risk of losing their shelters and threatens to turn the low-pressure system into a new humanitarian catastrophe.
