Gaza Government Media Office Criticizes “Peace Council” and National Committee for Absence Amid Displacement Disaster

Gaza’s Government Media Office has warned of the worsening humanitarian catastrophe hitting displacement camps as the first weather depression begins to take effect, announcing that five citizens were killed and two others, including children and women, are missing, with a number of citizens injured, after hundreds of tents were flooded and a sand embankment collapsed onto the tents of displaced families in the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Strip.

In a press statement on Monday, the Government Media Office said hundreds of tents belonging to displaced people had been flooded by the rains, while a sand embankment collapsed onto tents sheltering displaced families, causing deaths and injuries, amid the absence of the most basic means of protection and safety in shelter areas.

It explained that the disaster comes amid the continuation of the crime of genocide and the siege, and the measures imposed by the “Israeli” occupation, including the reduction of displacement zones and the moving of the “yellow line,” which has pushed citizens to seek refuge in dangerous geographical areas lacking the necessities of life and safety.

The office held the “Israeli” occupation, the US administration and the international community fully and directly responsible for the catastrophe, given the continued silence over the crimes and the prevention of the entry of shelter supplies, construction materials, mobile homes, fuel and spare parts needed to operate municipal and civil defense machinery.

It criticized what it described as the absence and abandonment of responsibilities by the “Peace Council” and the “National Committee for the Administration of Gaza,” stressing that the lack of any actual movement by these bodies toward the suffering of the displaced raises questions about their role and the usefulness of their existence under the current humanitarian conditions.

It called on the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and international and human rights institutions to intervene urgently to provide protection for civilians, and to press to oblige the occupation to open the crossings and allow the entry of humanitarian and relief needs, heavy equipment and the supplies needed to repair infrastructure, enabling civil defense and municipal crews to deal with the repercussions of the depression and rescue the displaced.

The office called on shelter committees and citizens to cooperate with municipal crews and facilitate their work, especially by opening the sand quarry belonging to the Deir al-Balah municipality, to help it take measures preventing further flooding of the tents of displaced people.

It stressed the need to move from issuing statements and positions to practical action to provide material and moral support to local institutions, foremost among them civil defense and municipalities, which are working with almost nonexistent capabilities in the face of successive disasters.