Tareq S. Hajjaj
Mondoweiss / September 20, 2024
As winter approaches, displaced families across Gaza are faced with two choices: either sink in overflowing sewage in destroyed cities or get flooded by rising tides on Gaza’s beach encampments.
Only a few feet away from the water, thousands of tents are sprawled across Gaza’s sandy beaches. Displaced families are trying to build sand barriers to prevent the incoming tide from flooding their living quarters. The ebb and flow of the tide has already cost several families their tents, who are now trying to pack up and find drier land. These were scenes that were taking place in Gaza last week, as Palestinians in the strip experienced the first rainfall of the season.
Last week’s rains revealed the environmental and health disaster looming over the millions of displaced persons crowded in densely packed tent encampments or bombed-out neighbourhoods towards the center and north of Gaza, where hardly any infrastructure is left. Throughout its ongoing genocidal war, the Israeli army has destroyed 655,000 meters of sewage lines and 330,000 meters of water lines according to Gaza’s Governmental Media Office.
This means displaced families across Gaza will be faced with two choices during the incoming winter season, during which floods have become increasingly common: either sink in sewage water in Gaza’s decimated urban landscape, or get swallowed up by the rising tide in the tent encampments by the sea.
‘The waves dragged our kids away’
Atiya Abu Banan, 28, is a father to a one-year-old daughter and lives in an encampment on the beach near Khan Younis. His family’s tent was flooded after rainstorms passed through Gaza last week, causing the tide to rise. He spent the entire night on September 15 standing in inches of sea water, his feet soaking wet, while holding his daughter up to protect her from the water. The waves had damaged part of his tent and soaked his family’s belongings, including their clothing and food. In video testimony for Mondoweiss, Atiya stands on the beach on a cloudy day and waits for his clothes to dry as he wears them. He tells Mondoweiss that his family doesn’t have anywhere left to go.
He and countless other families like his own arrived at the beach two months ago. Most of the people in Deir al-Balah had come in from Khan Younis and Rafah, the latest in a series of displacements since the start of the war nearly a year ago.
“I lost everything I have last night,” he tells Mondoweiss. “All I have are the clothes I’m wearing.”
In another video interview for Mondoweiss, Ilham Abuamsha, a mother of eight, stands on the beach as thousands of tents stretch out in the background behind her. She says that during the previous night, the tide flooded her tent and dragged her children several meters away from her while they were sleeping.
“It was a very difficult night,” she says. “The waves were high and scary, and they flooded everybody’s tents. And the winds were also very strong and violent, causing tearing [in the tent’s fabric].”
“This is an unbearable situation,” Ilham adds. “Our ‘safe’ shelters are dangerous. It’s unbearable.”
Ilham describes how her children were almost dragged out to sea by the force of the waves. “If we hadn’t caught them, they would be dead by now,” she says. “Where else should we take our children? Look at the waves: do we stay here until they swallow us?”
Ilham is also concerned that with the coming winter, they will be caught between the sea and the cold. “Will we die from the cold, or the sea, or the bombings?” she asks incredulously. “If winter comes and we’re still here, we won’t have a blanket to warm ourselves. We won’t even have a piece of tarpaulin to shield us from the rain.”
Cities flooded with sewage
Displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are no longer just receiving evacuation warnings from the Israeli army. Municipalities now also send out warnings to displaced people in areas where rainwater or sewage has flooded the streets, directing them to move to other locations.
Hazem Fahid, an engineer with the Deir al-Balah municipality, says that the Sahin al-Baraka area housing thousands of displaced families had received an evacuation order from the municipality
“Most of the rainwater flows into this part of Deir al-Balah now,” Fahid tells Mondoweiss. “And there is no drainage system to remove the water. This is the danger; if rain falls in large quantities, people will be in significant danger and their lives will be at risk.”
Fahid stresses that in some areas, people might actually be at risk of drowning from the expected severity of the floods. “In the [Sahin al-Baraka] area, the water levels can reach up to two-and-a-half meters. People will drown.”
Fahid adds that the Deir al-Balah municipality has not faced problems from the accumulation of rainwater in these areas before. But due to Israel’s destruction of the city’s roads and infrastructure, “this year is different,” he says. “A tragedy could occur.”
Sahin al-Baraka is a wide 300-dunam area (about 30 hectares), one of the few areas large enough to accommodate the number of displaced people. When they first arrived in the area two months prior, it was still summer and there was no risk of flooding.
Gaza’s Government Media Office issued a report on September 14 stating that the number of displaced people in Gaza has continued to increase over recent months, documenting the existence of 543 shelters and displacement centers across the Gaza Strip.
“The Gaza Strip is on the edge of a real humanitarian disaster with the coming of winter,” the Media Office said. “Almost 2 million people will be homeless as a direct result. The displaced will sleep on the ground and remain exposed to the elements.”
The report also stated that the government’s field assessment indicates that over 100,000 tents in Gaza are unfit for human habitation as a result of wear and tear, clarifying that most of the tents are made of plastic and fraying fabrics.
The Government Media Office’s report also issued a humanitarian distress call to the world, calling on the international community to save the 2 million displaced people of Gaza before it is too late.
Tareq S. Hajjaj is the Mondoweiss Gaza Correspondent, and a member of the Palestinian Writers Union
Hasan Suleih gathered video testimony for this report
