Follow-Up: Gaza Storm Assessment Counts 6,000 Shelters Destroyed and 26,000 Households Seeking Help, as 150,000 Tents Wait Outside
A UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs assessment dated November 10 found that Gaza's first winter storm, which began on November 6, flooded 261 displacement sites: more than 6,000 family shelters were destroyed and 17,400 damaged, leaving over 3,900 households with nothing over their heads. By November 8, more than 26,000 households had appealed for help after their shelters or belongings were damaged. About 1.4 million people in Gaza, 65 percent of the population, are living in tents or makeshift shelters.
The storm also killed. The UN reported that an infant drowned, and that five people, three children and two women, were killed and one more injured when a sand dune collapsed onto tents near the Al Berka reservoir west of Deir al-Balah. Water levels reached 1.5 meters in some locations, and the Civil Defense received 2,166 emergency calls on November 7 alone.
Supplies remain stuck outside. Aid agencies estimated before the storm that Gaza still needed about 121,000 tents, and more than 150,000 tents purchased by aid organizations and governments are waiting outside the territory, including roughly 117,000 held by the Egyptian Relief Committee at a logistics facility in Al-Arish, Egypt. UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said in New York on November 11 that bringing the tents in would ultimately require the cooperation and permission of the Israeli authorities.
The Associated Press reported on November 11 that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected claims that Israel was delaying winter aid and blamed Hamas for Palestinian suffering; Israeli authorities said 10,000 tents had entered Gaza. The UN's position is that approvals and crossing access remain inadequate for the scale of need.
Related: Gaza's First Winter Storm Floods at Least 70,000 Tents
(Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)
Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：加沙代尔拜莱赫被暴雨洪水浸泡的流离失所者帐篷（资料图）。照片：CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Tents of displaced Palestinians flooded by heavy rain in Deir el-Balah, Gaza (file photo). CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, via Wikimedia Commons.
