ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to explore all possible avenues to urgently increase humanitarian assistance to Gaza, as heavy rainfall devastated temporary shelters of displaced Palestinians.
The directive was issued before US President Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ highlighted the need for immediate measures to cope with the situation.
At least 70,000 tents in the besieged territory were reportedly flooded within 12 hours after heavy rainfall, affecting tens of thousands of displaced people.
Torrential rainfall caused a sand embankment to collapse onto tents housing displaced families in central Gaza, killing at least five persons and injuring six others.
Medics in Gaza said heavy rain late on Sunday washed away a rocky sandbank beside a displacement camp, south of Deir al-Balah. The victims included two women and three children, aged eight, six and four.According to Gaza’s government media office, the flooding caused casualties and washed away numerous makeshift shelters as civil defence service received around 1,500 distress calls from displaced residents seeking emergency assistance.
Describing the tragedy, Amal Al-Zein, a relative of the victims, said the dangers facing Palestinians extended beyond bombardment. ‘What can one say about the situation in Gaza? Whoever did not die from bombs and missiles is dying from buildings collapsing on them, from the collapse of sand and mountains on them,’ she said.
A witness, Sohaib Abu Darbali, said the collapse sounded like an explosion. ‘We found that three tents were covered completely after the mountain collapsed on top of them. People were under the rubble and we couldn’t see them,’ he said.
The incident has highlighted the growing dangers facing displaced Palestinians as the winter rainy season begins. The vast majority of Gaza’s two million residents are living in tent encampments or the remains of buildings destroyed during Israel’s two-yearmilitary assault.
Municipal and civil defence authorities warned they lacked resources to respond effectively to the disaster. Officials said hundreds of vehicles, including bulldozers and water-pumping machinery, had been destroyed during Israel’s military assault on the Palestinian territory.
In a post on X, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described the images emerging from Gaza as ‘heart rending’, particularly those showing flooded tents and children trapped in extreme cold without adequate shelter. ‘I have directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to pursue all possible means to escalate humanitarian assistance urgently,’ he said.
He also voiced concern over what he described as continued Israeli actions to prevent the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance to Palestinians. ‘I strongly condemn these violations of the ceasefire and international law, and this continued aggression toward the Palestinian people,’ he added.
Most of Gaza’s population is heavily dependent on assistance but international agencies have repeatedly warned that humani-tarian supplies remain inadequate, with Israel maintaining restrictions on the entry of aid.
Insufficient measures President Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ said Israel needed to act immediately to help war-battered Gaza cope with impending winter, saying measures ahead of deadly floods had been insufficient.
‘The situation no longer represents simply a threat posed by the approaching winter, but an immediate humanitarian emergency,’ the Board of Peace said.
It said it had been warning Israel, which controls all entry into the territory, of the need to prepare both for the winter and seasonal flooding.
The Israeli military claimed it had allowed over 8,200 trucks to enter the Gaza Strip with supplies including 91,000 tents, but the Board of Peace called them insufficient. ‘We call on the leadership of the current Government of Israel to act immediately to authorise and facilitate the entry of all necessary winterisation and humanitarian supplies,’ it said.
Additional input from Agencies