MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Israel bombed one of Gaza's biggest hospitals overnight despite a ceasefire. Gaza's health ministry says at least six people were killed, including a Palestinian surgeon. The operating ward was badly damaged. Israel says it targeted a Hamas commander and says the group stored weapons and conducted interrogations inside. Hamas called the accusations an attempt to justify another war crime. Gaza's health infrastructure has been decimated by Israeli attacks in the war. And now flooding and landslides from winter rains are deepening a humanitarian crisis. NPR's Anas Baba reports from Gaza City.
AHMAD NABHAN: (Speaking Arabic).
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: At the Al-Aqsa Hospital morgue in central Gaza, Ahmad Nabhan places a wreath of fresh basil leaves beneath the head of his 5-year-old daughter, Maryam (ph), wrapped in a white burial shroud. Beside her lie the bodies of his pregnant wife, Tahrir, their 6-year-old son, Salah, and their 4-year-old niece, Habiba. Ahmad is the sole survivor of his immediate family. He happened to be away when their tent was buried as the earth gave way to the heavy rain.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER RUSHING)
BABA: Fifty-eight-year-old grandmother Um Al Abed Al-Sahar (ph) survived the collapse just yards away.
UM AL ABED AL-SAHAR: (Speaking Arabic).
BABA: Al-Sahar says the downpour hit without warning. Within minutes, the sand cliff above them collapsed, burying her and her daughter to their waists and swallowing neighboring tents whole. She screamed for rescuers to dig out Ahmad Nabhan's family members.
AL-SAHAR: (Speaking Arabic).
BABA: Al-Sahar says displaced families knew that cliffside was unsafe but had no choice.
AL-SAHAR: (Speaking Arabic).
BABA: Al-Sahar says, "out of sheer distress, people throw themselves under mountains, into the sea, anywhere they can pitch a shelter. Tell us where should we go?" That question has no easy answer. With Israeli forces controlling more than 70% of Gaza's territory, over 2 million people are compressed into shrinking pockets of land.
(SOUNDBITE OF RAIN POURING)
BABA: The devastation from the single storm is staggering. This is Gaza's fourth winter of the war. Gaza authorities say more than 20,000 tents were flooded in just two days. Gaza's civil defense warns that more than 2,000 buildings damaged by Israeli airstrikes are at risk of collapse. But the displaced families sheltering inside them refuse to evacuate. Just weeks ago, a building sheltering around 100 people collapsed, killing 21.
AL-SAHAR: (Speaking Arabic).
BABA: Al-Sahar says people are simply exhausted by the effort to stay alive.
AL-SAHAR: (Speaking Arabic).
BABA: "At the very least, bring us tents to live like human beings," she says. "Bring us a dignified life. For God's sake, we just want to live." The U.N. warns that Israeli restrictions on basic winter supplies - heavy tarps, tents and drainage equipment - have left the population completely defenseless.
Anas Baba, NPR News, Gaza. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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