By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Middle East
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – A rare winter storm has brought rain and snow to the Middle East creating stunning images of a winter wonderland in the Holy Land and across the Middle East from Egypt to Syria. However, the storm System has also brought devastating flooding and freezing temperatures to the region, leaving hundreds without heat or power.
On Thursday poorly built homes in Northern Gaza collapsed as a result of freezing rain and sleet from the powerful storm system, several residents began seeking refuge in local schools. The United Nations has called the most severally effected regions “a disaster area” and more than 5,000 people have been evacuated from flood-damaged homes in the region.
In a statement on Saturday the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), which is reasonable for the administration of refugee camps in the Palestine territory, said “Large swathes of northern Gaza are a disaster area with water as far as the eye can see.
The freezing weather, coupled with fuel shortages and the fact that many Palestinian do not live in quality homes with adequate heading systems, many Palestinian have been forced to use fires to heat their homes, which creates a risk of deadly house fires. A government spokesman said that a 22-year-old Palestinian man died as a result of smoke inhalation on Saturday which he suffered after lighting a fire to heat his home.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported 100 other people had been injured as a result of the flooding after the rising waters damaged poorly built homes along the coastal territory. Among the injured were people who had been hit by debris falling from inundated buildings. Several people were also injured as a result of car accidents on flooded roadways.
Chris Gunness, a spokesperson for the UNRWA spokesman, said areas near a refugee camp in northern Gaza “have become a massive lake with two-meter-high waters engulfing homes and stranding thousands.”
Israel has responded to the crises by opening a main crossing with Gaza on Friday in order to allow fuel supplies and four water pumps into the territory to help victims of flood damage and to help end blackouts, which have lasted longer than 21 hours.
Gaza is home to 1.8 million people, governed by Hamas. The region has already endured blackouts caused by fuel shortages, often lasting for 12 hours of blackouts daily since Gaza’s only power plant was switched off last month due to a fuel shortage resulting from tunnels connecting the region to Egypt being shut down.
The enclave lies on the coast, sparing it the snow that has fallen across other parts of the region, but heavy rains felled trees and damaged nearly 200 homes.
Fayez al-Yazghi, a shop owner in Gaza described the crises as “the worst weather we’ve had in 20 years. There’s no electricity, fuel and cooking gas. Many homes are flooded and destroyed” he went on to say the region is in “need urgent intervention from the whole world to save our lives.”
For more information please see:
The Guardian – Gaza Receives First Fuel Shipment in Weeks after Winter Storm – 15 December 2013
ABC News – Gaza Strip Receives Fuel After Storm Batters It – 14 December 2013
The New York Times – Gaza, Vexed By Floods, Gets Fuel and Power – 15 December 2013
Scientific American – More Than 5,000 Evacuated From Gaza “Disaster Area” Floods – 14 December 2013
Al Jazeera – Icy Floods Force Gaza Residents from Homes – 13 December 2013
