Katie MacLean

Recent heavy rains in Gaza directly affected more than 106,000 people, damaging or destroying shelters, latrines, and belongings. Three children aged four, five and eight were killed along with their mother over the weekend when a sand dune collapsed onto their tent in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, after heavy rainfall. The deaths happened as families, exhausted by war and the protracted crisis, prepare to face a fourth winter under very dire conditions. Some 1.7 million displaced people are still living in tents, makeshift shelters, or damaged buildings exposed to flooding, cold and collapse. The flooding caused by the heavy rains is compounding a sanitation crisis created by the war.  No wastewater treatment plant in Gaza is currently operational. UNICEF and partners are distributing tarpaulins, winter clothing, blankets, and hygiene supplies, clearing blocked sewers and stormwater basins, and installing sandbags at sites to mitigate the impact of flooding.  In the past week alone, we reached at least 10,000 children with winter clothing and thermal blankets, distributed tarpaulins to families whose tents have flooded, and cleared sewage and stormwater at more than 50 locations. The emergency response is vital but is not a long-term solution. Tents and tarpaulins offer little protection against severe storms, and damaged water and sanitation systems continue to put children’s health and lives at risk. UNICEF urgently calls on the Israeli authorities to allow the immediate entry of pumps, generators, spare parts and other materials needed to repair water and sanitation infrastructure, including the Sheikh Radwan stormwater basin and the Sheikh Ejleen Wastewater Treatment Plant. We urge the international community to join the call for the entry of all life-saving humanitarian supplies and equipment, and to provide urgent funding for UNICEF's winter response in Gaza. Learn more: unicef.link/4C96qDo