GAZA CITY (AA) – Dozens of makeshift housing units in the Gaza Strip were flooded on Friday due to heavy rains amid a cold snap which erupted this week across the Middle East region.
Rainfalls had poured into makeshift tin huts sheltering dozens of Palestinian families in the southern Khuzaa town after they had been made homeless following a devastating Israeli offensive on the blockaded coastal enclave last summer, Shehda Abu Rouk, the town's local chief, told The Anadolu Agency.
Abu Rouk called on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA to open up its schools in Khuzaa to temporarily shelter the once again homeless families.
Moreover, an entire neighborhood in the southern Rafah city has also been flooded, according to local civil defense authorities.
Using fishing boats, civil defense forces managed to rescue the residents of Jumeizat Al-Sabil neighborhood, whose streets and farmland had been damaged by the flood, Said al-Seoudi, the director of Gaza's civil defense authority, told AA.
Dozens of Palestinian families have already left their homes in several parts of the Gaza Strip in fear of flooding amid an ongoing cold snap.
Residents of flood-prone areas vacated their homes after local authorities warned that such areas were in danger of being flooded with rainwater and sewage.
Local authorities have said the cold spell could cause a "humanitarian disaster," as the strip's war-battered infrastructure could not withstand heavy rainfall.
In December of 2013, thousands of Gazan families were displaced when a severe cold snap and torrential rains flooded entire neighborhoods.
Already underdeveloped as a result of Israel's eight-year blockade, the strip's rickety infrastructure sustained further damage during Israel's 51-day military onslaught in July and August of last year.
Over 2,160 Palestinians were killed – and some 11,000 injured – during Israel's seven-week summer offensive, which, according to Palestinian government figures, also cost the Gaza Strip an estimated $5 billion.
