Israel Opens Dam Gates, Deliberately Floods Gaza Again

Hundreds of Palestinians have been forced to evacuate their homes as the Israeli government opened several dam gates surrounding the occupied territory on Sunday, without any prior warning.

The families have been receieved in shelters sponsored by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, informed al-Ray.

“The [Israeli] army opened the floodgates of a canal leading to central Gaza, which led to the removal of sand mounds along the border with Israel,” Gaza’s Civil Defense Directorate (CDD) said in a statement reported by the Palestinian news agency WAPA.

“Opening the levees to the canal has led to the flooding of several Palestinian homes, and we had to quickly evacuate the afflicted citizens,” added the statement.

According to the CDD, the Israeli authorities deliberately opened the gate without warning as happens almost every year. Beside the material damage, no casualties have been reported so far, but people have been injured and livestock and poultry died.

“We are appealing to human rights organizations and international rights organizations to intervene to prevent further such action,” Brigadier General Said Al-Saudi, chief of the civil defense agency in Gaza, said to Al Jazeera, deploring the losses for local farmers.

The people of Gaza have barely begun to recover from the flooding caused by the Huda storm in January, which also forced them to leave their homes.