The Electronic Intifada 9 January 2025
Heavy rains and overcrowding by the shore has led to flooding and evacuations, here in Deir al-Balah on 31 December, 2024. Al-Mawasi, a coastal area that comprises one-tenth of Gaza’s area and stretches from Deir al-Balah to Rafah, is now playing host to 1.7 million forcibly displaced people.
APA imagesSafa Afaneh and other members of her family were living in a tent made of fabric and nylon on the shores of Deir al-Balah when it was flooded by seawater and sewage in late November.
“Despite the sand barriers placed around the tent to protect against rising sea waves, nothing stopped the water from entering while we were sleeping at night. The water swept away two of my children, as well as the blankets and bedding,” Afaneh said on 3 December about the effects of the flooding.
“The neighbors rushed into the sea to search for my children, using their mobile phones to light up the water until I was lucky enough to find them alive.”
Afaneh’s 4-year-old son Ahmed needed to go to the hospital; he was having difficulty breathing after being pulled under water during the flooding.
Afaneh and her family had been displaced from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza to Deir al-Balah in November 2023, fleeing the heavy bombardment. They sought refuge in several schools and camps, all of which were overcrowded. Eventually, they ended up in tents on the shore.
“Before the war, we lived in a comfortable house and a healthy environment,” Afaneh said. Now, she added, “we don’t know what we will do after our tent flooded. The situation is extremely tragic, and there is no other place to go given the severe overcrowding.”
According to the Government Media Office, the Israeli army has forced about 1.7 million displaced Palestinians into the Mawasi area, which stretched from southern Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip to northern Rafah in the south.
In effect, what constitutes about 75 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are confined to a narrow area that makes up less than one-tenth of the coastal territory.
“Unbearable”
The government’s field assessment teams report that 81 percent of tents need immediate replacement due to deterioration after 11 consecutive months of displacement and these inhumane conditions.”
Mahmoud Bassal, the spokesperson for the Civil Defense, said tent dwellers faced potentially “tragic conditions” due to winter rainfall and wear and tear.
“This makes the tents more vulnerable to flooding and being swept away by seawater and sewage.”
Bassal blamed the Israeli authorities responsible for the deteriorating conditions after the Israeli military blocked the entry of new tents and mobile homes.
“The residents are crammed into a very small area, which the occupation calls the ‘humanitarian zone,’ forcing the people of Gaza to live in closely packed tents along the beach.”
Saeed Hassouna is one of many who left his home because of the ongoing Israeli attacks or rising flood waters. He and his family of five evacuated the Beach refugee camp in Gaza City for al-Mawasi in Khan Younis as far back as October 2023.
But the supposed safety of Mawasi has proven elusive.
“I woke up at night to find my five children, who share only two blankets, soaked with water after the sea water broke into our tent, reaching our clothes, food, and bedding,” Hassouna said on 4 December.
“We have nothing left, no clothes, no blankets, no food. The sea carried it all away,” he said. “I am still living in my tattered tent full of holes. I can’t afford the $500 to repair.”
Tough days
Hassouna said he searched for days for space to move to as the rising tides and ocean currents made living near the beach impossible, but to no avail. Everywhere is overcrowded, he said, and he is concerned about the effects colder weather and more rain might have.
“This war has exhausted us; it has taken everything from us, and now we live through tough days and times because of the rain and living in tents,” Hassouna said. “Life here is unbearable.”
Sharif Abu Abdo set his tent up on the beach in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis. It was also flooded after heavy rains in November.
Abu Abdo, 53, who was displaced from Rafah in May, said: “The sea water flooded us, and my tent was completely destroyed by the intensity of the waves that hit it.”
I temporarily repaired it with limited resources until I can move to another place.”
Abu Abdo said he had patched up his tent for now but was looking to move somewhere else. He and others faced double fears: of the Israeli occupation and its attacks and of the rising sea and its waves.”
“We are living the worst reality a person could experience. In the summer, we suffer from oven-like heat and insects and rodents. In the winter, it feels like we are living inside refrigerators,” Abu Abdo said.
He stresses the need for the genocide to end so he can return to his home, even as he has little illusion of what he will find there.
“Setting up a tent on top of the rubble of my destroyed house is much easier than spending the winter by the sea.”
Taghreed Ali is a journalist based in Gaza.
