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A rainstorm swept across the Gaza Strip Tuesday, flooding hundreds of tents, collapsing homes sheltering families displaced by two years ‌of war and killing at least ‍six people, local health officials said.Medics said five people, including two women and a girl, died when homes collapsed near ⁠Gaza City’s beach, while a one-year-old boy ⁠died of extreme cold in a tent in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza.Tents were torn from ‍their stakes, some flying dozens of meters before crashing to the ground. Others lay crumpled in muddy pools as families scrambled to salvage what they could. Residents tried to resecure remaining shelters, hammering in loosened pegs and stacking sandbags around the edges to keep floodwaters from pouring inside."We didn’t realise what was happening until the wall started collapsing - an eight-metre-high wall, a strong concrete wall. Because of the speed and force of the wind, ‌the wall fell on top of us, onto three tents,” said Bassel Hamuda, a displaced man in Gaza."The elderly man, 73 years old, was martyred. His son’s wife was killed, and his son’s daughter ‍was killed,” he said.Three months ⁠since a ceasefire ‌halted major combat, Israeli forces have ordered the near-total depopulation of nearly two thirds of Gaza, forcing its more than 2mn people into a narrow strip near the coast where most live either in makeshift tents or damaged buildings.Dozens of relatives gathered at a hospital morgue Tuesday for special prayers over bodies laid on medical stretchers before the funerals.The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said at least 31 Palestinians had died since the start of the winter season from exposure to cold or the collapse of unsafe buildings damaged by previous Israeli strikes.It said about 7,000 tents were damaged in the past 48 hours, most of whose occupants have no ​alternative shelter.Municipal and civil defence ‌officials said they were unable to cope with the storm because of fuel shortages and damaged equipment. During the war Israel had ⁠destroyed hundreds of vehicles needed to respond ‍to the weather emergency, including bulldozers and water pumps.In December, a UN report said 761 displacement sites hosting about 850,000 people were at high risk of flooding, and thousands had moved in anticipation of heavy rain.UN and Palestinian officials said at least 300,000 new tents were urgently needed for the roughly 1.5mn people still displaced. 

It only took a matter of minutes after the heavy overnight rain first began to fall for Jamil al-Sharafi's tent in southern Gaza to flood, drenching his food and leaving his blankets sopping wet.The winter rains have made an already precarious life worse for people like Sharafi, who is among the hundreds of thousands in the Palestinian territory displaced by the war, many of whom now survive on aid provided by humanitarian organisations.**media[398766]**"My children are shivering from cold and fear... The tent was completely flooded within minutes," Sharafi, 47, said Sunday."We lost our blankets, and all the food is soaked," added the father of six, who lives in a makeshift shelter with his children in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi.A fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been in place since October 10, following two years of devastating fighting.**media[398770]**But despite the truce, Gazans still face a severe humanitarian crisis, and most of those displaced by the war have been left with little or nothing.Families are crowded into camps of tents hastily erected from tarpaulins, which are often surrounded by mud and standing water when it rains.**media[398761]**"As an elderly woman, I cannot live in tents. Living in tents means we die from the cold in the rain and from the heat in the summer," said Umm Rami Bulbul."We don't want reconstruction right now, just provide us and our children with mobile homes."Nighttime temperatures in Gaza have ranged between eight and 12 degrees Celsius in recent days.**media[398767]**Nearly 80% of buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to United Nations data.And about 1.5mn of Gaza's 2.2mn residents have lost their homes, said Amjad al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.Of more than 300,000 tents requested to shelter displaced people, "we have received only 60,000", Shawa told AFP, pointing to Israeli restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid into the territory.**media[398771]**The UN refugee agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, said the harsh weather had compounded the misery of Gazans."People in Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents & among ruins," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X."There is nothing inevitable about this. Aid supplies are not being allowed in at the scale required."**media[398769]**COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said in mid-December that "close to 310,000 tents and tarpaulins entered the Gaza Strip recently" as part of an increase in aid under the ceasefire.Earlier this month, Gaza experienced a similar spell of heavy rain and cold.The weather caused at least 18 deaths due to the collapse of war-damaged buildings or exposure to cold, according to Gaza's civil defence agency, which operates under Hamas authority.**media[398762]**On December 18, the UN's humanitarian office said that 17 buildings collapsed during the storm, while 42,000 tents and makeshift shelters were fully or partially damaged."Look at the state of my children and the tent," said Samia Abu Jabba.**media[398768]**"I sleep in the cold, and water floods us and my children's clothes. I have no clothes for them to wear. They are freezing," she said."What did the people of Gaza and their children do to deserve this?"**media[398760]**

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said Wednesday that thousands of displaced people in the Gaza Strip are struggling to find safe shelter in preparation for the approaching cold weather, amid the ongoing aftermath of the Israeli entity's two-year war on the Strip."Thousands of internally displaced people in the Gaza Strip are struggling to find safe shelter in preparation for the coming cold weather," the agency said in a post on X."People have no choice but to create makeshift tents. More shelter supplies are needed," UNRWA added.The agency also said that more than 79,000 displaced persons live in the 85 shelters that UNRWA manages.Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric warned yesterday that many families in Gaza are living in poorly equipped shelters, prone to flooding, adding that this inevitably leaves people highly vulnerable to inclement weather. 

Malaysian authorities announced on Monday that the recent floods in the country have displaced more than 10,000 people, with the northern state of Kelantan being the most affected.Kelantan, which has been experiencing continuous heavy rainfall for several days, recorded the evacuation of 8,248 people due to the floods. The displaced were moved to 33 flood relief centers, according to the authorities.The Meteorological Department has issued warnings of continued heavy rainfall and strong winds.In Dec. 2014, Malaysia experienced an unprecedented flood that struck several western states, resulting in the displacement of about 400,000 people after they lost their homes and belongings.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that approximately 75,000 displaced people in the Gaza Strip are currently sheltering in more than 100 of its facilities, despite most of them being damaged by Israeli bombardment and overcrowded.In a post on its X platform, UNRWA said humanitarian conditions in these shelters have become extremely dire, with acute shortages of water, food, and basic supplies.It also warned of a deteriorating health situation and the spread of diseases due to overcrowding and poor sanitation.UNRWA affirmed that its teams continue to operate despite limited resources to provide urgent assistance to the displaced, calling on the international community to take immediate action to ensure the protection of civilians and improve the worsening humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.It also noted that 90% of Gaza's population suffers from malnutrition.Since the outbreak of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, UNRWA has faced the biggest humanitarian crisis in its history, as its schools and health facilities have turned into temporary shelters housing hundreds of thousands of displaced people, amid widespread destruction and the collapse of basic services.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has confirmed that it is currently operating more than 70 shelters across the Gaza Strip, housing tens of thousands of forcibly displaced people.In a statement on Sunday, the Agency noted widespread destruction throughout the territory, including unstable structures and unexploded ordnance. It stressed that its teams continue working tirelessly to keep the shelters operational and to help children continue learning and playing.UNRWA also reported that more than 25,000 Palestinian children have joined the agency’s temporary learning spaces, either in person or online, with plans underway to expand the number of these facilities.The Agency further stated that it provides online lessons for around 300,000 children in the Gaza Strip, emphasizing that literacy and education serve as vital tools to combat despair and psychological trauma — made possible through the dedication of thousands of UNRWA teachers.

Her Excellency Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations, Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al-Thani met with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi at the Permanent Mission's headquarters in New York. During the meeting, aspects of cooperation between the State of Qatar and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees were reviewed. The two sides also discussed ways to enhance joint efforts to alleviate the suffering of refugees and displaced persons around the world through the provision of humanitarian and relief assistance.

Six Palestinians, including women and children, were martyred and several others injured on Sunday morning when an Israeli drone targeted a tent sheltering displaced families in the central Gaza Strip. According to local sources, the strike hit a displacement tent in Deir al-Balah, where dozens of civilians had sought refuge from ongoing bombardments, according to the Palestinian news agency (WAFA). The ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza since October 2023 has so far resulted in at least 64,803 martyrs, and over 164,264 injuries.