Sand washed loose by the rain buries a tent camp in central Gaza, killing three children and two women
The rainy season has only just begun and tens of thousands of tents are already flooded, while Washington pushes for the next step in its peace plan.
Heavy rain on Sunday caused a sand embankment south of Deir al-Balah, in the middle of the Gaza Strip, to give way on top of tents housing displaced people. Five people were killed, three children and two women, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said, according to the news agency AFP in a report carried by Malay Mail. Rescue teams were still searching for missing people. The service is urging displaced families not to pitch tents near mounds of sand and is asking aid organisations for equipment.
As early as Saturday, some 70,000 tents were flooded according to the Hamas-run media office, NOS reported; civil defence received about 1,500 emergency calls in ten hours. Unicef representative Jonathan Veitch told the BBC the situation was desperate. He pointed to Israeli restrictions on bringing in heavy machinery and to UN budget cuts that mean fewer tarpaulins and tents reach Gaza. About 90 percent of the population has been displaced by the war.
On the political front, Washington is applying pressure. According to Israel's Channel 12, cited by The Times of Israel, Donald Trump asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday to move ahead with the US plan for Gaza now that the Israeli election is over, whatever government emerges. The plan provides for the disarmament of Hamas, a technocratic Palestinian administration and reconstruction. A ceasefire has been in force since October last year, but the Israeli army still carries out almost daily strikes on what it calls Hamas targets.