Heavy rain has flooded low-lying areas across the Gaza Strip, including Khazaa and Beit Hanoun where thousands of Gazans displaced by the Israeli offensive last summer are living in caravans. Civil Defense spokesman Muhammad al-Midana told Ma'an that a number of homes in the neighborhood of Kunz Street and Shabia Street in Gaza City had been flooded, and that the Civil Defense had removed swamped cars inside the city and the northern Gaza Strip. He also said that Civil Defense crews evacuated a school when water levels rose sharply in the surrounding area, putting the school at risk of flooding. He said that there had been no reported injured. Meanwhile, witnesses in the low-lying area of Khazaa east of Khan Younis said that a number of caravans housing displaced Gazans had been swamped. There were similar reports from Beit Hanoun. Gaza has been hit by severe flooding in the past. more

Hundreds of Palestinians were evacuated from their homes Sunday morning after Israeli authorities opened a number of dams near the border, flooding the Gaza Valley in the wake of a recent severe winter storm. The Gaza Ministry of Interior said in a statement that civil defense services and teams from the Ministry of Public Works had evacuated more than 80 families from both sides of the Gaza Valley (Wadi Gaza) after their homes flooded as water levels reached more than three meters. Gaza has experienced flooding in recent days amid a major storm that saw temperatures drop and frigid rain pour down. The storm displaced dozens and caused hardship for tens of thousands, including many of the approximately 110,000 Palestinians left homeless by Israel's assault over summer. The suffering is compounded by the fact that Israel has maintained a complete siege over Gaza for the last eight years, severely limiting electricity and the availability of fuel for generators. It has also pre...

Hundreds of Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday were forced to evacuate their homes due to rising water levels, as winter Storm Huda began to take a toll on the besieged coastal enclave on the third day of its landing. Hatem al-Khur, an official in the Khuzaa municipality east of Khan Younis responsible for the displaced, said that 49 mobile homes had been inundated in the neighborhood of Abu Rida in his city, while 100 more families were living in destroyed homes that he deemed uninhabitable. "People are calling us for help and we are not capable of helping them after the recent war," he said, highlighting that the families most severely affected by the storm had all lost their homes in Israel's summer assault that left 2,200 dead and 110,000 homeless. He told Ma'an that locals are calling upon international institutions to intervene and end their suffering, as local officials lacked the resources to help. Muhammad al-Meidana, spokesman for Gaza ci...

GAZA CITY: Dozens of Palestinian families have fled their homes in parts of Gaza City which face a threat of flooding amid the cold snap that hit the Palestine a day earlier. Residents of Al-Nafaq district began vacating their homes Tuesday evening after local authorities released a warning that the area is in danger of being flooded with rainwater and sewage as Gaza braces for a snowstorm dubbed "Huda." The local authority had said that the anticipated cold spell could cause a "humanitarian disaster" as the city's partially destroyed infrastructure may not withstand flooding from heavy rain. "Hundreds of Palestinians' houses in Gaza City are at risk of flooding in areas where infrastructure has been most damaged," the authority said. Already underdeveloped as a result of Israel's seven-year blockade, Gaza's infrastructure sustained further damage during Israel's 51-day offensive in July and August. more

A senior UN official has declined to respond to mounting warnings that the failure of his so-called Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism could lead to a breakdown of the August ceasefire that ended Israel’s 51-day massacre in the territory. Anger is growing over the fact that there has been virtually no rebuilding, a situation made worse by devastating floods that have prompted UN agencies to declare a “state of emergency.” “We do not have any comments,” Nicole Ganz, spokesperson for Robert Serry, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) said in an email to The Electronic Intifada on Thursday. The curt reply came in response to a statement from Gaza’s private sector bodies rejecting the UN-sponsored reconstruction plan. In October, The Electronic Intifada revealed details of the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, pushed by Serry and signed by Israel and the PA. It calls for onerous restrictions on building supplies and monitoring for Palestinians trying to rebuild th...

The UN's Palestine refugee agency UNRWA on Thursday evening declared a state of emergency in Gaza City amid massive rains that have shut down normal life in parts of the besieged coastal enclave's largest city. A major storm over the past week has filled the streets of Gaza City with water and sewage, causing further misery for the more than 100,000 Palestinians left homeless -- including nearly 30,000 still staying in emergency shelters -- from Israel's massive offensive over summer that also left nearly 2,200 dead. UNRWA said in a statement that 63 schools across Gaza City and 43 schools across the Northern Gaza Strip governorate had been closed Thursday due to the flooding. Hundreds of residents in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City had also been evacuated due to the rise of a "storm water lagoon" that had flooded many homes in the area. "The flooding is exacerbating the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza caused by blockade and the u...

Eleven-year-old Aya Al-Ajlah, a student in Gaza, is sad that her school notebook filled with two months of effort sunk in rain water which poured in from her classroom window. All of the classroom's glass window panes were smashed during the most recent Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. She sits next to the broken window in a school that was targeted by Israeli missiles located in Shujaya, on the eastern border of Gaza. Al-Ajlah tells a journalist from the Anadolu Agency that the window is covered with pieces of torn plastic, which allows cold air and rainwater to seep in. She calls on the official bodies responsible for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip to take interest in all the schools targeted by Israel and grant the students of Gaza their right to learn in a suitable environment. She said: "The cold air and rainwater seeping through the plastic is enough to disrupt our studies because we are cold all day and this distracts us." Taghreed Al-Areer, who works as a ...

Moataz Sukkar no longer runs to his home's balcony in the Gaza Strip to welcome the year's first autumn rain. The Palestinian young man had to carry out an urgent chore after rainwater spread through the floor of his house: fix the fragile spread of nylon sheets and cloth rags he had installed to cover the roof after it was blown off by Israeli warplanes during the latter's recently-ended devastating offensive on the coastal enclave. "This is exactly what we have feared; that the rain season will begin before the reconstruction process [for the strip] does," Sukkar, 23, told Anadolu Agency on Sunday. "This morning the rain ruined our only option for covering up the roof." In Gaza City's eastern Shujaya district, which had been heavily targeted by Israeli bombardments, Mohamed al-Moghni screams at his children to stay away from the streets surrounding their partially-destroyed home after they were flooded with rainwater. "We were flooded wit...

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli media reported on Sunday that Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon had approved plans to allow construction material into the Gaza Strip in order to help repair buildings destroyed in December's severe winter storm. Israeli news site Ynet said that the plan to allow 1,000 tons of cement and "construction materials" into the besieged coastal enclave followed coordination between Israeli officials, the Palestinian Authority, and officials from the international community. The decision was taken by the Defense Minister and its implemented will be directed by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Eitan Dangot. It was not clear when the transfer would take place. more

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A video shot on the streets of Gaza City shows extensive flooding more than a week after the region was hit by a massive storm. Taken on December 21, the video from the Institute for Middle East Understanding's Jehad Saftawi shows streets, cars, and homes still completely flooded, revealing the devastation the Gaza Strip suffered in the wake of winter storm Alexa in mid-December. The footage is shot from a camera placed on a raft as the driver navigates the streets of the al-Nafaq neighborhood in Gaza City. Due to widespread fuel and electricity shortages, disaster response crews have been unable to pump water out of the many flooded areas across the Gaza Strip. Additionally, a number of sewage pumps at plants across the Gaza Strip had stopped working due to lack of fuel prior to the storm, causing sewage to spill into the streets. As a result, the water currently flooding many parts of Gaza is a mixture of cold water and sewage. more

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Gaza Strip was pounded by fierce winds and rain again on Friday as flooding reached dangerous levels in many areas, forcing thousands to flee their homes amid widespread power outages as temperatures plunged into the single digits. The flooding was worst in the northern Gaza Strip, where hundreds fled their homes and water levels reached 40-50 cm in some parts, forcing residents to use boats to navigate their neighborhoods. The Gaza government said in a statement on Friday that so far 2,825 people have been evacuated from their homes, reaching a total of 458 families. The evacuated were being sheltered in schools across the Strip, the statement was reported by Gaza-based Safa News Agency as saying, as Hamas civil defense authorities rushed to evacuate flooded homes. Gaza Minister of Health Mufid al-Mukhalalati declared a state of "extreme emergency" as all emergency devices and ambulance crews were put on a state of high alter in all regio...

EL ARISH, Egypt (Ma'an) -- After three days of intense rainfall, many of the tunnels under Gaza's border with Egypt are flooded or collapsed, an Egyptian security official told Ma'an. The underground trade has halted during the stormy weather due to concerns that many tunnels remain unstable, the official in Egyptian Rafah said. more

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Rescue crews used fishing boats to help 25 families trapped in a flooded plain in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, amid icy storms have in the region this week. Civil defense spokesman Muhammad Al-Maathaneh said a low plain in Rafah was under water, and 300 homes were at risk of flooding. more