The emergency committee of Gaza Municipality announced that its crews handled 335 reports and distress calls on 6 and 7 November after the effects of a storm that hit the city, causing rainwater to pool and buildings to collapse in various areas.
In a statement, the committee said the storm brought about 60 mm of rain, equivalent to 15 percent of the annual average, noting that it received 251 reports and alerts in addition to 84 distress calls related to pooled rainwater and rising water levels in streets and shelter centres.
It added that municipal crews carried out water pumping and addressed pooling in low-lying areas, alongside monitoring conditions at shelter centres and responding to emergencies, including a collapsed inhabited house in the al-Nasr area that injured a child, the collapse of another uninhabited building, and a collapse on al-Shifa Street in the Ma'an area.
The committee explained that field interventions were carried out in cooperation with the Civil Defence and with the participation of the United Nations Development Programme, which contributed to addressing one of the affected sites.
The committee noted that its crews faced major challenges during their work, most notably widespread damage to rainwater drainage networks and infrastructure, a shortage of water pumping vehicles and heavy equipment, the density and geographic spread of reports, the fragility of conditions at some shelter centres, and difficulty reaching a number of sites.
It affirmed that the state of emergency continues and that reports are being followed up, stressing the urgent need to provide water pumping vehicles, heavy equipment and shelter supplies, and to support maintenance and rehabilitation work to strengthen the crews' capacity to confront the effects of storms and protect residents and displaced people.
