Floods and sandbank collapse kill four in Gaza displacement camp
Heavy rain has affected 106,000 people in Gaza as storms submerge tents and camps, according to Al Jazeera.
Heavy rain and a sandbank collapse at the Ard al-Ribat displacement camp in Deir el-Balah killed four people on Sunday evening, Al Jazeera reported. The collapse occurred in central Gaza after a few minutes of rain, burying several tents under debris.
The victims included eight-year-old Salah, his six-year-old sister Maryam, and their mother Tahrir, who was five months pregnant. A four-year-old girl named Habiba also died in a neighbouring tent, while her mother and brother remain in intensive care.
According to UNICEF, the heavy rain has directly impacted 106,000 people in Gaza. The United Nations (UN) estimates that approximately 1.4 million people, representing 65 per cent of the population, were residing in makeshift shelters or tents when the storms arrived.
Residents attempted to rescue those trapped using bare hands and mobile phone lights because they lacked excavation equipment. Suhaib Abu Darabi, a neighbour, said the scale of the collapse was too large for residents to manage without more resources.
The Gaza Government Media Office described the incident as a humanitarian disaster. The office held Israel, the United States administration, and the international community responsible, citing the blocking of construction materials and fuel as contributing factors.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that more than 26,000 households had documented damage to their belongings or shelters by November 8.
