Heavy rains in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians try to cope
Flooded street during torrential rains in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on January 16, 2022. AFP - MAHMUD HAMS
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1 min
A major wave of bad weather has affected the entire region in recent days.
The Palestinian enclave is completely helpless in the face of the vagaries of the climate.
Israeli bombardments and repeated wars have destroyed basic infrastructure.
As a result, the sanitation system in the Gaza Strip is very quickly saturated.
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From our correspondent in Jerusalem
,
Sami Boukhelifa
Water up to the knees, and sometimes even up to the waist. Videos of children crossing streets drowned under several centimeters of water are making the rounds on Palestinian social networks. Every winter, these floods become more and more painful, says Randa, a resident of Gaza: “
Every time there is a war, Israeli missiles destroy our basic infrastructure, which is already very old. In addition, these heavy rains fell on Gaza on Saturday and Sunday. There is no garbage collection during the weekend, and so the rubbish has blocked the few sewerage channels that are still functional
”.
Damaged agricultural plots
In Gaza, in addition to flooded urban areas, large agricultural plots were damaged.
According to Mohamed Bakri, president of the agricultural committee of Gaza, here too Israel has a share of responsibility: “
I am not saying that Israel is purposely drowning Gaza.
But Israel has built several dams upstream, which block the natural flow of the rivers that flow through Gaza.
And every time there is heavy rainfall, the Israelis open the floodgates of their dams to evacuate their excess water, and it's the deluge here, it also causes the erosion of our agricultural land
.
For the moment it is above all the strawberry plantations, “Gaza's red gold”, which are the hardest hit.
►Also listen: Gaza: five months after the war, the inhabitants are still waiting for reconstruction
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Palestinian territories
Gaza
Weather
Climate change
Israel