Storms flood tents in Gaza as Israel steps up bombardment

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

Downpours 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 as a result of Israel's war in Gaza.

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

Many tents used early in the war have now worn out and no longer offer protection, but the price of new tents and plastic sheeting has shot up beyond the means of families displaced by Israel's bombardment of Gaza.

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 territory.

Ms Sabea sells the bread she bakes in a wood-fuelled earth oven to make a living for her children. However, 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," Ms 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 UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said in a post on X, formerly Twitter that winter's first rains mean even more suffering.

"Around half a million people are at risk in areas of flooding," it said. "The situation will only get worse with every drop of rain, every bomb, every strike."

Israel increases bombing of Gaza

Meanwhile, Israeli military strikes intensified across the enclave.

In Rafah southern Gaza, an Israeli air strike killed at least four people, medics said, while tanks deepened their incursions in the northern edge of two towns of Beit Hanoun, and in Beit Lahiya, and Jabalia, the largest of the enclave's eight historic refugee camps.

Medics said seven Palestinians were killed by two Israeli air strikes in the area of Jabalia.

Residents also said Israeli planes dropped new leaflets on Beit Lahiya ordering remaining residents to leave to the south, saying the area would come under attack and providing them with a map.

Residents said Israeli forces had blown up hundreds of houses since renewing operations in an area that Israel said months ago had been cleared of militants.

Palestinians have said Israel appears determined to depopulate the area permanently to create a buffer zone along the northern edge of Gaza, an accusation Israel denies.

Israel's war in Gaza has killed more than 44,200 people, and uprooted nearly the entire population at least once, according to Gaza officials, while reducing wide swathes of the narrow coastal territory to rubble.

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

Two Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in occupied West Bank

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority said two Palestinians, including a teenage boy, were killed during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank village of Yabad.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces entered the village last night, leading to clashes during which Israeli soldiers shot dead two Palestinians.

The two dead were identified by the Palestinian health ministry as Muhammad Rabie Hamarsheh, 13, and Ahmad Mahmud Zaid, 20.

An Israeli military source claimed that during an IDF "counterterrorism activity in the area of Yabad, two terrorists hurled explosives at IDF soldiers. The soldiers responded with fire and hits were identified".

Last week, the Israeli army launched several raids in the West Bank city of Jenin, killing nine people, most of them Palestinian militants.

Violence in the occupied West Bank has soared since Israel’s war in Gaza erupted last year.

Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 777 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.

Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the occupied West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.