Gaza floods leave 350,000 affected as UN humanitarian chief demands aid access

Heavy rain and flooding has worsened conditions for thousands of displaced Palestinians in the Strip. Authorities say around 70,000 tents have been flooded or damaged, affecting around... 350,000 people in some displacement camps. Floodwaters have reached one and a half metres. There's an urgent need for blankets, winter clothing and heating supplies. But Israeli restrictions continue to limit the amount of humanitarian aid entering. Tom Fletcher is the Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator with the United Nations. In a statement on X, he said foreign ministers said progress would be hard until after the Israeli elections. Now we're told to. Well, earlier, Tom Fletcher spoke to Al Jazeera. He said efforts are underway to secure international support for getting desperately needed winter supplies into Gaza. We've been talking to foreign ministers across the world. This was a massive theme during the General Assembly at the UN at the end of September. I'm in daily contact with colleagues at the Board of Peace. And all of us are insisting that we've got to get this winter plan delivered. We have 150,000 tents waiting outside Gaza. We need to get them in right now. The weather should not be ruining people's lives in this way. It's not happening just a few kilometers on the other side of the border. So we need to move. fast. And of course, when we're allowed to deliver, we can. We've got 10,000 kids receiving winter clothing just in the last week and thermal blankets. We've got 50,000 sandbags in. But as we've all seen, it's not enough. We need these heavy family tents to get in. And to do that, we need several things to happen. We need all the crossings open. We need our vital NGO colleagues to be allowed to work alongside us, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, which actually co-leads the work on Shelter. We need the implementation of UNSCR. Twenty eight or three by Hamas and Israel moving through those steps to get that agreement in place. You know, these are not complicated things to make happen. And we need that sense of urgency. My worry is we've got one point four million people, two thirds of the population facing some sort of hunger crisis in the in the period ahead as we get into winter. And that number could rise if we don't get these vital. supplies in, that we're dealing with all sorts of obstacles, including savage funding cuts that we faced over the last couple of years. But we'll do our bit. We're determined to do that. But we need those crossings open. We need to start moving. I've spoken several times to colleagues at the Board of Peace today who are trying to help us get these tents in. I've spoken to foreign ministers, for example, in the UK earlier this evening and to colleagues in the UAE, in Saudi, across the region. And there is a collective will to get this done. And so people are making the phone calls, they're making the statements, they're insisting that we get the access that we've been asking for for so long. We set out a plan months ago to avoid this situation. We just now need the support to implement it. I am getting a positive response from foreign ministers, many of whom backed this plan during the General Assembly in September. I am getting that support from the Board of Peace as well, who have issued a statement making very clear that we should be allowed. This full access. G7 ministers just issued or leaders actually just issued in Paris a statement backing our plan and insisting on our humanitarian access. So the world is stepping up and making these demands. And, you know, we now need to see that delivery and we're ready to go. I'm heartbroken to imagine what it must be like for people in Gaza facing into a winter like this, seeing these flimsy tents that we've been able to get in being swept away by. These storms, if they need those heavier tents, they need the fuel and the food. This is ultimately about dignity and they need that dignity to help them survive through what will be a very, very tough winter and they should not wait any longer.