Displaced Gazans struggle with winter chill as heavy rains lash shelters, camps

GAZA STRIP: Rain lashed the Gaza Strip over the weekend, flooding makeshift encampments with ankle-deep puddles as Palestinians displaced by the two-year war attempted to stay dry in tents frayed by months of use.

- Associated Press

Damaged tents at a beach camp shelter in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip.

(REUTERS)

Muddy water soaked blankets and mattresses in tents in a camp in Khan Younis and fragile shelters were propped up with old pieces of wood. Children wearing flip-flops and light clothing ill-suited for winter waded through the freezing puddles, which turned dirt roads into rivers. Some people used shovels to try to push the water out of their tents.

"We drowned last night," said Majdoleen Tarabein, a woman displaced from Rafah in southern Gaza. "Puddles formed, and there was a bad smell. The tent flew away. We don't know what to do or where to go."

She showed blankets and the remaining contents of the tent, completely soaked and covered in mud, as she and family members tried to wring them dry by hand.