With the beginning of 2025, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continue their military aggression on the Gaza Strip, conducting more airstrikes and bombing houses over their residents to kill more Palestinians. New evacuation orders have been issued for al-Buriej refugee camp’s residents, as part of the genocidal campaign which has been ongoing for nearly 15 months now.
While the whole world is celebrating the end of the year and the beginning of a new one, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are struggling to find primitive means to cope with rain flooding into their tents or searching for shelter following the new evacuation orders. Moreover, Israeli airstrikes are claiming more lives.
According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)’s field documentation, at around 00:30 on Wednesday, 01 January 2025, an Israeli drone fired a missile at Abu Daher family house in Block 9 in al-Buriej refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip. As a result, Khloud ‘Esmat Jum’a Abu Daher (30) and Adam Sameer ‘Eliyan Farajallah (8) were killed, and many others were injured.
At approximately 01:06, the IOF issued1 new evacuation orders for the residents of two residential blocks in al-Buriej refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, ordering them to move immediately to the so-called “ humanitarian zone”. As a result, hundreds have been forcibly displaced in the cold rainy weather.
Moreover, at approximately 01:30, IOF’s warplanes targeted a house sheltering Badra, Abu Warda, and Taroush families in Jabalia refugee camp, north of the Gaza Strip. As a result, 15 members of those families were killed, and 20 others were injured.
At around 02:30, IOF’s warplanes targeted a house belonging to Rami Abu Tu’aima, Al-Jazeera reporter, in al-Fukhari village, southeast of Khan Yunis. As a result, Rami’s daughter, his sister, and her two children sustained injuries.
At approximately 10:40, IOF’s warplane targeted a group of Palestinians in al-Manara neighborhood, south of Khan Yunis, killing 4 of them and injuring others.
Meanwhile, PCHR’s fieldworkers have documented the flooding of hundreds of tents sheltering displaced people across the Gaza Strip due to the heavy rainfall over the past two days. This has worsened the suffering of the displaced people living for months in flimsy tents and lacking proper clothing and blankets after the IOF had destroyed their houses or forcibly displaced them due to evacuation orders. Heavy winter rain has washed out tents, leading to the spread of infectious diseases among the displaced amid the bitter cold weather.
According2 to the Civil Defense, rainfall has inundated 1,542 tents sheltering displaced people in the displacement camps and shelters across the Gaza Strip over the past two days. These tents were as follows: 242 tents at Yarmouk Stadium and Gaza Municipality Park, 185 tents at the Saraya complex, 70 tents at the Shujaiya parking lot in Gaza City, 170 tents along the sea shore in Rafah, more than 665 tents in Khan Yunis, and 210 tents in western Deir al-Balah, particularly in al-Bassa, al-Baraka, and Wadi al-Salqa areas in central Gaza Strip.
The endless suffering of displaced people living in worn-out tents requires urgent action from the international community to find solutions and establish proper shelters that provide healthcare and food services for the displaced people. Also, the international community should implement mechanisms for the return of the displaced people to their areas and rebuild their destroyed homes.
PCHR reiterates its call for the international community to take urgent and impactful action to compel Israel to stop its genocide in Gaza, impose an immediate ceasefire, and comply with the rulings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that have ordered provisional measures to halt and prevent the crime of genocide.
