GAZA CITY (AFP) – Dozens of homes and farms south of Gaza City were inundated by flood waters overnight as heavy rains drenched parts of the Middle East, Palestinian officials and witnesses said on Tuesday.

The rising waters flooded some 30 homes in Wadi Gaza, a farming area south of Gaza City mostly inhabited by Bedouins, as the Islamic resistance movement Hamas-run security forces worked through Monday night to evacuate residents, they said.
The flooding cut off roads linking Gaza City to the south of the impoverished territory for several hours, and an AFP reporter said a bridge was washed away as waters rose to three meters (more than nine feet) in places.
At least 12 people were injured in the flooding, according to Dr. Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services.
Mohammed al-Agha, agriculture minister in Gaza, warned of a “humanitarian disaster.”
“The flooding of Wadi Gaza endangers the lives of citizens because there are built-up homes, farmlands and livestock pens that are completely flooded,” he said.
Yussef al-Mansi, the housing and public works minister, said the government had declared a state of emergency in the area.
The infrastructure of the impoverished territory of 1.5 million people has been strained by Israeli border closures tightened after Hamas took power in 2007 that prevent the import of most construction materials and spare parts.
On Monday, one person was killed and another went missing after their jeep was swept away by flash floods in Israel's southern Negev desert.
The deluge came as the Jewish entity, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and other parts of the eastern Mediterranean experienced unusually heavy winter storms.
Photo: A Palestinian man carries two children through a flooded street in the central Gaza Strip January 19, 2010. (Reuters photo)
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