4 dead in Gaza as severe flooding overwhelms tent cities

Panic as a sand dune collapses under the weight of heavy rain trapping Umm Muhammad. Oh my God, this is what we see in the desert. It's a sin, she says. They had to drag me from the rubble. At least four of her neighbours, including three children, did not survive. In a matter of hours over the weekend, the first heavy winter rains flooded Gaza's tent cities, the only shelter for the majority of its two million people, as houses sit in ruins. What the? Come see, he says, we are drowning. There is a ceasefire and a plan for rebuilding, but it's in limbo while Israeli airstrikes continue and aid is slow to arrive. In a social media statement, Israel says it's brought in over 91,000 tents, but reconstruction can only begin once Hamas fully disarms, it says. It will not permit equipment that could develop terrorist capabilities Not good enough, says the UN, for what it calls catastrophic rain for flimsy tents. Our teams are working with far too little equipment and too few shelter materials for the scale of the need. One NGO in Gaza, reached by CBC News, warns a bigger crisis may loom. Because those flooding are mixing with the sewage, so a disease will be happening. So you can see, it is a complexity of different layers of challenges. Challenges and fears as Gazans dread the next big rainstorm. Sasha Petrovic, CBC News, Toronto.