Two strikes by Israeli armed forces killed at least 10 Palestinians, including four children, in the central part of the Gaza Strip today, medical sources said, as rainfall flooded makeshift camps set up by displaced residents of the enclave.

Palestinian health officials said at least five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on a school in Nusayrat – one of eight historic refugee camps in the Gaza Strip – where displaced people had taken refuge. The Israeli army noted that it targeted a Hamas administrative center located inside the site formerly used as a school.

Later, an Israeli strike on a house in Dair al-Bala, a town where a million displaced people have taken refuge, killed a woman and four children, doctors said.

For its part, the armed wing of Hamas said today that its fighters managed to lure a convoy of Israeli vehicles into a “well-orchestrated ambush” on the Israeli forces’ supply line east of Rafa and attacked them with anti-tank rockets and explosive devices planted on the road. The Israeli military has not commented on the incident.

Another misfortune

Heavy rainfall overnight compounded the problems of displaced Gaza residents, as many tents were flooded and some were washed away by the water.

Some displaced people placed buckets on the ground to protect their mattresses from water dripping from the tents and dug trenches to drain the water. The price of new tents and plastic sails skyrocketed due to the high demand.

30-year-old Ahmed al-Burai said displaced people were using sacks of flour or torn clothes and nylon bags to make tents. Once it started raining and blowing, some makeshift tents were flooded and others were blown away by the wind.

“Everything got soaked: the blankets, the food and the people after a few hours of rain,” he told Reuters, speaking from al-Mawashi, the humanitarian zone set up in the southern Gaza Strip.

“Most displaced people cannot afford to buy new tents or plastic sails. Just two days ago the price for plastic sails was 100 to 200 shekels (23 to 46 euros) and today it has increased to 700 to 800 shekels (166 to 190 euros) due to the greed of traders,” he complained.

The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) stressed that more shelter and supplies are needed so that Palestinians in Gaza can survive the coming winter.

“As autumn begins, plastic and fabric are not enough to protect people from rain and cold,” she said in a post on X.

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced by the war, which is in its 12th month, while Israeli raids and bombing have reduced most of the Palestinian enclave to rubble.