This came in a statement issued by the agency’s spokesman, Mahmoud Basal, commenting on the humanitarian situation of the displaced people in conjunction with a low-pressure system that entered the sector on Monday-Tuesday night and caused hundreds of tents to be flooded.
Basal added: “Through continuous field monitoring of the reality of shelters and tents of displaced people, and with the receipt of thousands of appeals from various areas of the Gaza Strip, we confirm that the tents are absolutely unsuitable for living and do not provide the minimum requirements for a safe life, especially with the onset of winter and the intensification of weather depressions.”
He explained that tents allow rainwater to leak in and fail to protect children, women, and the elderly from the cold and wind.
He stressed that these tents also lack "safety and privacy conditions," emphasizing that they cannot be "considered a temporary solution, as they have become a source of suffering and a real danger to people's lives."
He called on humanitarian, international and relief agencies to take urgent action to provide safe and equipped residential caravans (prefabricated houses) as a temporary alternative that would preserve the dignity of the displaced and protect them until the reconstruction process begins.
"Flood risk"
In this context, UN Secretary-General’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday that many displaced Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip are at risk of flooding because they are living in poorly equipped shelters.
Dujarric explained at a press conference that people in Gaza are "extremely vulnerable" to the severe weather conditions, and stated that the United Nations and its partners are doing everything they can "to alleviate the suffering."
He added that obstacles to the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza continue, noting that Israel systematically continues to prevent the entry of some vital supplies and prohibits the activities of important relief groups, including UN partners.
Earlier on Tuesday, the tents of displaced Palestinians were again flooded after heavy rains hit the Gaza Strip, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis caused by two years of ongoing Israeli attacks.
A low-pressure system accompanied by heavy rains on Tuesday caused dozens of tents of displaced people to flood in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip, amid warnings of a humanitarian disaster.
It is noted that the Gaza Strip needs about 300,000 tents and prefabricated housing units to meet the most basic shelter needs of its residents, after Israel destroyed the infrastructure during two years of annihilation.
The United Nations estimates the cost of rebuilding Gaza at about $70 billion, as a result of the repercussions of two years of Israeli war of extermination with American support, which led to the martyrdom of more than 69,000 Palestinians and the injury of more than 170,000.
