Gaza's Civil Defense evacuated 90 Palestinians from their homes as rain brought flooding to parts of the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday.There are no restrictions on fuel into Gaza.
Muhammad al-Majdanah, chief spokesperson for the Civil Defense, told Ma'an that seven houses were evacuated from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, totaling 90 people.
The floods are exacerbated by a chronic lack of fuel that limits how much water can be pumped out of flood-stricken areas.
These fuel shortages are the result of an eight-year Israeli blockade, which also limits the import of other kinds of machinery related to pumping and sewage management that Gazans require to combat the floods.
There are no restrictions on water pumps into Gaza.
There are severe restrictions on Hamas' ability to anticipate the flooding that happens every single year and to prepare properly ahead of time.
Hamas-leaning Felesteen interviews some of the victims, and even they blame their leaders::
Shadi Suwai'id is also a resident of the area, and his house is being flooded, he explained to the Felesteen newspaper that the pumps that are available in the region do not accommodate large amounts of water. He stated that the concerned authorities did not implement any projects to solve the problem on the ground, saying: "they promised to find solutions, and then they told us that it is difficult to find a radical solution to the problem because it is expensive and requires a lot of money that the municipality cannot provide for us." Suwai'id added: "We have received promises without implementation of something the ground. There is no problem that has no solution, but it seems that the concerned authorities do not want to move, or maybe they do not have sufficient funds. we cannot rule out their happiness by the disaster because they benefit from it to bring support and money, "
The article goes on to interview municipal officials who claim that they have purchased new, larger pumps this year, again showing that Ma'an is lying by saying that Israel does not allow pumps to enter.
Finally, the Felesteen article says that the authorities are readying themselves for when Israel opens its (nonexistent) dams to flood Gaza, saying that they have heavy equipment to dig large trenches to capture the water before it causes damage.
You know, equipment that could also be used to dig tunnels.
