Cold, Rain and Flooding for 1.8 Million Palestinians in Gaza this Winter · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Palestinian family in #Gaza rescued by boat from flooded homes. More: http://t.co/3IlcwTUy40 pic.twitter.com/kzUKdnNil4
— Yousef Munayyer (@YousefMunayyer) December 13, 2013
Around 10,000 Palestinians in northern Gaza were displaced from their homes after four days of torrential rain. Their problem is compounded by the fact that the strip's only electricity power station had been shut for 50 days, thanks to a shortage in fuel in the besieged enclave.
The Gaza Strip is home to 1.8 million Palestinians, who have had to endure up to 14 hours a day, without electricity, for the past seven weeks. Following the flooding, triggered by the Alexa storm which just hit the region, the United Nations declared northern Gaza “a disaster zone” and Qatar stepped in to pay for fuel for the power station.
Omar Ghraieb, from Gaza, notes:
#Gaza: Electricity crisis eases up a bit after nearly 50 days of very minimal power!Power outages reached & sometimes topped 21 hrs per day!
— Omar Ghraieb (@Omar_Gaza) December 16, 2013
He adds:
The New electricity schedule in #Gaza: 8 hours of electricity followed by 8 hours of a power outage per day everyday!
— Omar Ghraieb (@Omar_Gaza) December 16, 2013
And Palestinian Nour Odeh exclaims:
In '07 north #Gaza drowned in sewage, now all of Gaza drowns in rain & world still debates if there is a #siege! http://t.co/PnIGUQslOk
— Nour Odeh (@nour_odeh) December 15, 2013
Footage shared online shows a horrible humanitarian situation.
This video, by Jehad Saftawi, shared by the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) starts with a bare-footed Palestinian child running in icy conditions (Videos used under CC BY License):
The commentary provided with the video, which shows families in unheated shelters, reads:
Residents of Gaza City's An Nafaq neighborhood are seeking shelter wherever they can find it, including at the Abdel Rahman bin Auwf school shown in this footage from today. Some of the scenes, which includes a child shivering in an unheated concrete classroom, are made even more disturbing by the fact that they are not the exception in today's Gaza, but the rule. Like much of the 25-mile-long strip, An Nafaq has been devastated by flooding made worse by a suffocating Israeli siege. UN spokesperson Chris Gunness minced no words when he called today for an end to that siege: “Any normal community would struggle to recover from this disaster,” said Gunness. “But a community that has been subjected to one of the longest blockades in human history, whose public health system has been destroyed and where the risk of disease was already rife, must be freed from these man made constraints….”
This second video, also filmed by Saftawi for the IMEU, shows submerged areas in the Palestinian enclave, and sheds light on some of the suffering Gaza's inhabitants have to endure in this worsening humanitarian situation: