Rainstorm floods tents of displaced Gazans as Israel steps up strikes

Heavy rain flooded tent encampments of displaced Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Monday, adding seasonal winter misery to communities already devastated by 13 months of war, as Israeli forces stepped up strikes in the enclave.

Downpour overnight inundated tents and in some places washed away the plastic and cloth shelters used by displaced Gazans, most of whom have been uprooted several times during the conflict between Israel and Hamas militants.

Some placed water buckets on the ground to protect mats from leaks and dug trenches to drain water away from their tents.

While many tents used early in the war have now worn out and no longer offer protection, the price of new tents and plastic sheeting has shot up beyond the means of displaced families.

Suad Al-Sabea, a mother of six from northern Gaza, now lives inside a classroom with broken windows at a school housing displaced families in Khan Younis in the south of the Strip.

Sabea sells the bread she bakes in a wood-fuelled earth oven to make a living for her children. But rainwater spoiled the flour and damaged the oven, threatening to put her out of work.

"I was scared of life or death, now we worry about the rain," she said.

"The dough drowned in water, and many mattresses drowned in water. It was raining on top of my head and I kept baking to provide for my children," Sabea told Reuters.

Some other encampments closer to the beach were flooded, and some tents were swept away by high waves.

"The sea took away my little daughter, thank God we were able to rescue her," said Mariam Abu Saqer, who used to live in a tent by the beach before it was flooded by seawater.

"Where should we go? Wherever we go, they tell us there is no space," she said.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said thousands of displaced people were affected by seasonal flooding and demanded new tents and caravans from aid donors to shield them.

The war erupted in response to a cross-border attack by Hamas-led militants on October 7, 2023 in which gunmen killed around 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.