GAZA CITY, Palestine / ISTANBUL

Heavy rains have submerged dozens of tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip amid bad weather conditions in the enclave, witnesses said Tuesday.

Several tents collapsed under the rainfall in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, while others were blown away by strong winds in the area, they told Anadolu.

“The situation in the city is extremely catastrophic due to the destruction of most roads, water and sewage networks by the Israeli war,” said Saib Luqan, a spokesman for Khan Younis Municipality.

According to local authorities, the Israeli army has destroyed 220,000 linear meters (136.7 miles) of road networks over the past two years.

Nearly 900,000 people in Khan Younis are currently facing “tragic and grim” conditions due to bad weather conditions, Luqan said.

He added that municipal teams are working with insufficient equipment to help displaced civilians affected by the bad weather.

The Palestinian group Hamas said Tuesday that the Gaza Strip is facing a growing humanitarian catastrophe as a new storm system moves in and basic shelter remains unavailable due to what it described as Israel’s failure to fulfill its obligations under the ceasefire agreement that went into effect in October.

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said in a statement that the territory is experiencing “an escalating catastrophe with the arrival of a new weather front that has flooded displaced children, women and the sick inside their tents amid the continued absence of essential shelter requirements.”

He said Israel’s ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip, closure of border crossings, and restrictions on reconstruction efforts represent “a continuation of the genocide using other tools.”

Qassem called on the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the United Nations to take serious steps to provide relief to Gaza’s residents, especially as winter approaches and “unbearably worsens the suffering of the displaced.”

According to the Gaza Government Media Office, 1.5 million Palestinians are displaced in Gaza, living in catastrophic conditions with little access to basic necessities and severely limited essential services due to Israel’s ongoing blockade.

Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed nearly 70,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and injured more than 170,900 people in the over two-year war that has left much of the enclave in ruins.