UN agency warns displaced Gazans face floods, as emergency supplies blocked

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of ​displaced Gazans face flooding of ​their tents and shelters by heavy rains, and materials for shelters ⁠and sandbags are not being allowed to enter the enclave, the UN International Organization for Migration said on Friday.

Torrential rain ​swept across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, flooding ‍hundreds of tents sheltering families ​displaced by two years of war, and leading to the death of a baby girl due to exposure, local health officials said.

Nearly 795,000 displaced people are at heightened risk of ⁠potentially dangerous flooding in low-lying, rubble-filled areas where families are living in unsafe shelters, the IOM said. Insufficient drainage and waste management also heightened the risk of disease outbreak, the UN agency added.

Materials to help reinforce shelters such as timber and plywood, as well as sandbags and water pumps to help with flooding ​have been delayed from ⁠entering Gaza due to ongoing access restrictions, ⁠the IOM said.

Israel says it is meeting its obligations and accuses agencies of inefficiency and failing to prevent theft by Hamas, which the group denies. COGAT, the Israeli military arm that oversees ‌humanitarian matters, was not immediately available for comment.

Supplies ​already dispatched to Gaza, including waterproof tents, thermal blankets and tarpaulins, were not able to withstand the flooding, the IOM added.

"After this storm made landfall yesterday, families are ‍trying to protect their children with whatever they have," IOM Director General Amy Pope said.

A ceasefire has broadly held since October, ‌but the war destroyed much of Gaza’s infrastructure, and ‌living conditions are dire. U.N. and Palestinian officials said at least 300,000 new tents are urgently needed for the roughly 1.5 million people still displaced.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin in Geneva, additional reporting ⁠by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Ramadan Abed in Gaza, Editing by Alexandra Hudson)