Gaza: floods force thousands from their homes

Torrential rains in the past week have caused heavy flooding in the Gaza Strip, with thousands of people evacuated from their homes and seeking refuge in schools and makeshift shelters, Agence France-Presse reports. The flooding was so severe that many homes could only be accessed by row boat, with water more than six feet deep in some places,

"Large swathes of northern Gaza are a disaster area with water as far as the eye can see," the United Nations Relief Works Agency said in a statement. Further north, heavy snowfall blanketed the Jerusalem area and parts of the occupied West Bank last week.

On 14 December the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that:

*At least 1,500 homes have been damaged or destroyed due to flooding
*Over 10,000 people have been displaced from their homes
*One infant has died as a result of exposure to cold weather and an additional 100 people have reported storm related injuries.

*It is anticipated that thousands more people have been or will be displaced from their homes this week.

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said on Saturday: "Any normal community would struggle to recover from this disaster. 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 to deal with the impact of a natural calamity such as this."

In November, due to the ongoing situation and lack of resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Gaza's main power station was regularly shut down leaving 1.7 million Gazans in the dark for up to 18 hours a day. Sewage treatment facilities are unable to function without power, causing the overflow into Gaza's streets. The flooding this week has made the situation worse.

The ecumenical group Churches for Middle East Peace, (CMEP) based in Washington DC, has commended Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Qatar for assisting in providing immediate needs caused by the recent weather, but more must be done to end the long-term suffering of the Gazan people.

CMEP call on readers to visit: http://go.cmep.org/gazacrisis and tell the Obama Administration to increase US relief and development efforts and encourage ending Israel's blockade of Gaza.

Source: CMEP