Two Dead, Several Injured as Severe Weather Batters Gaza

(MENAFN) Severe weather across the Gaza Strip killed two Palestinians and injured multiple others on Sunday as torrential rains and powerful winds battered displacement camps, medical officials confirmed.

A 30-year-old woman died when the wall of a home—previously damaged during Israeli military operations—collapsed onto a tent housing displaced families in Gaza City's Al-Rimal neighborhood, media reported, citing medical sources. Her relatives sustained injuries in the incident.

Separately, a seven-year-old boy drowned in a well located in the Northern Governorate, the Gaza Civil Defense announced. Recovery teams spent hours extracting the child's body while simultaneously attempting to drain flooded tents and clear overwhelmed sewage systems, according to their official statement.

The brutal weather system, which began Saturday night, has destroyed or submerged thousands of makeshift shelters throughout the territory, witnesses and a correspondent observed. In Khan Younis, hundreds of beachfront tents were inundated by surging waves driven by the low-pressure system.

This marks the third deadly weather event in recent months. Previous storms killed 17 Palestinians—including four children—when structurally compromised buildings gave way and tens of thousands of tents were swept away or collapsed.

Sami Asaliya, a displaced resident from Nuseirat refugee camp, pleaded for alternative housing solutions. "We need mobile homes," Asaliya told media. "The tents don't protect us from rain and winds; they have been flooded several times."

Near his waterlogged shelter, a young man struggled with shaking hands to patch torn fabric against the deluge, searching desperately for warmth inside the deteriorating structure.

Hadiya Atiya Farajallah, an elderly displaced woman, stood frozen before her flooded tent, watching helplessly as water consumed her belongings. "I lost five of my children, my tent was flooded twice, and my husband is an elderly man who cannot do anything," she told media.

Displaced Palestinians face extreme vulnerability while inhabiting damaged tents or structurally unstable buildings—many already weakened by continuous Israeli strikes since October 2023.

Israeli genocidal campaign has resulted in over 71,200 Palestinian deaths—predominantly women and children—and more than 171,200 injuries since October 2023, while reducing much of Gaza to rubble.

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