Al Jazeera reported on Saturday, citing the latest United Nations humanitarian assessment, that more than 200 temporary shelters in the Gaza Strip, housing hundreds of thousands of people, are at serious risk of flooding this winter.
The Occupied Palestinian Territories’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that 214 operational sites were at particular risk of flooding due to their location and poor conditions.
Thousands of tents were damaged in Gaza last week by flooding as temperatures dropped due to winter weather. Approximately 1.5 million people are currently evacuated in 925 evacuation sites across the Strip, 1.1 million of whom are living in vulnerable makeshift camps.
Only three of Gaza’s 590 medical facilities are fully functional, and only 18 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain open.
Power outages cut water production at southern Gaza desalination plants by a third this week, worsening the crisis as winter weather intensifies.
From October 10 to November 20, approximately 100,000 aid pallets entered Gaza, but only 87,500 were collected for distribution.