RAMALLAH, November 3, 2025 (WAFA) - The Government Operations Room for Emergency Interventions in the Gaza Strip issued an urgent appeal to the United Nations, its agencies, and international and humanitarian organizations to take immediate action- as winter approaches - to save thousands of displaced families at risk of flooding in low-lying areas of the Gaza Strip. Alternative and safe shelter centers are needed before the situation worsens, it stressed.
In a statement issued on Monday, the Operations Room warned that the humanitarian situation poses an imminent danger in areas most vulnerable to flooding, rainwater accumulation, and sea surges, particularly given the extensive destruction inflicted on infrastructure by the continued aggression and extermination waged by the Israeli occupation over the past two years. The statement highlighted severe damage to drainage networks and roads, as well as the lack of basic protection and heating means for thousands of displaced families.
The areas most at risk of flooding and collapse include "Al-Jazira" area along Salah al-Din Street from the Maghazi junction to the Bureij junction, Sahn al-Barka and the Wadi al-Salqa basin in the central governorate, displaced persons gathering along the coastal Al-Rashid Street spanning 26 kilometers from the northern to the southern parts of the Strip, and the camps east of Deir al-Balah and Al-Nafaq Street in Gaza City.
Samah Hammad, Head of the Government Operations Room, confirmed that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is extremely dire, and that displaced families residing in coastal and low-lying areas face the risk of flooding at any moment. She stressed the urgent need to relocate them to safe shelters and provide them with essential assistance.
Hammad explained that international organizations possess ready-to-use shelter supplies but are still awaiting permission to bring them into the Strip, while the occupying authorities continue to obstruct the entry of humanitarian aid and fail to comply with the ceasefire agreement stipulating the entry of 600 aid trucks daily. Hammad noted that between 1 and 25 October 2025, only 5,078 trucks entered Gaza, averaging 203 trucks per day—far below the minimum humanitarian needs, particularly for shelter materials and tents.
She added that, as part of the Relief and Early Recovery Plan, the Ministry of Public Works and Housing has designated 294 temporary shelter sites equipped with water and sanitation services near the original residential areas. She called on humanitarian organizations to coordinate with the Operations Room to establish shelter centers in the identified locations.
Hammad concluded by calling on the international community to exert pressure for the immediate and unrestricted entry of sufficient and unrestricted humanitarian aid, including relief materials, tents, shelter supplies, and prefabricated housing units; to ensure the protection of hundreds of thousands of displaced persons living in dire conditions.
T.R.
