Blood and rain: Displaced Palestinians battle floods amid Israeli strikes

Two strikes by Israeli forces have killed at least 10 Palestinians, including four children, in central Gaza, medics have said, as heavy rains flooded displaced residents' tent encampments.

Palestinian health officials said on Monday at least five Palestinians were killed at a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Nuseirat, one of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps.

The assault on Gaza, now nearly a year-long, carried on even as international attention turned to the conflict in Lebanon.

Later on Monday, an Israeli air strike on a house in the city of Deir al Balah, where a million people have taken shelter, killed a woman and four children, medics said.

Heavy rains overnight piled more problems onto Gaza's displaced as downpours flooded tents, washed some of them away, and forced families out of their sleep.

Some placed water buckets on the ground to protect mats from leaks and dug trenches to drain water away from their tents. The price of new tents and plastic sheeting to prevent leaks shot up.

Coping with weather

Ahmed Al-Burai, 30, said people made their tents of used sacks of flour, worn-out clothes, and nylon bags. As soon as it rained the water and wind blew many tents away and flooded others.

"Everything is drowned, the blankets, the food, and the people in just a few hours of rain," Burai told Reuters over the phone from Al Mawasi, a humanitarian-designated area in southern Gaza.

"Most of the displaced can't afford the new prices of tents and plastic sheeting. Just two days ago the price of plastic sheeting stood at $27 to $54 and today it has risen to $189 to $216 because of the greed of merchants," Burai said.

More shelters and supplies to help people cope with the coming winter were needed, the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said.

"As autumn begins, plastic and fabric are not enough to protect people against the rain and the cold," the relief agency posted on X.