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Every day when Rajaa Musleh wakes up and checks her phone, she fears she will see news that another member of her family has been killed in Gaza.
Musleh, a nurse and humanitarian worker who evacuated from Gaza to Cairo last year, works at the charity organization Human Concern International delivering food, medicine and other essential aid. Her 75-year-old mother and other family members are still in Gaza, where they face constant dangers: bombing, disease, starvation, medication shortages and environmental devastation.
“I feel that I am divided into two parts,” Musleh said. “My body is here in Cairo and my soul inside Gaza.”
Israeli forces have killed more than 70,000 Palestinians over the past two years and two months, according to official estimates. The United Nations estimates that 90 percent of Gaza’s population is displaced and that 1.5 million people are in urgent need of shelter.
Over the past two years, the U.N. and global medical and human rights authorities have continuously sounded the alarm on famine and forced starvation in Gaza, widespread environmental destruction, near-constant bombardment and violations of international law, deeming Israel’s assault a genocide. Israel has destroyed Gaza’s water, sewage and hospital infrastructure and, the U.N. said, continues to restrict the entrance of food, tents, warm clothes and life-saving medical supplies, leaving millions without basic necessities.
Now, as multiple reports show Israel violating the latest ceasefire, winter rains are flooding thousands of tents in Gaza amid plummeting temperatures. Escalating environmental destruction, from the impact of chemical weapons to heavily polluted water, make the scale of humanitarian devastation even more apocalyptic.
“This war, I call it a climate war,” Musleh said. “It has created catastrophe, an environmental health crisis … and I think this will affect Gaza for generations.”
The unusually heavy rains, strong winds and floods Storm Byron brought to Israel and Gaza this week are making conditions for displaced families even more dire. One baby in Gaza died overnight this week in a cold and flooded tent.
“The storm is exacerbating the humanitarian crisis amid the destruction of infrastructure and a lack of resources,” Gaza City Mayor Yahya Al-Sarraj told Al Jazeera.
According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, nearly 850,000 people in Gaza are sheltering in 761 displacement sites particularly vulnerable to flooding expected from the storm.