Storms and rain cause major damage

"I called the Israeli police and municipality emergency section all day but none of them came to help," said Yihya Mohammed Jalajel, the Palestinian resident of Jerusalem whose house was among hundreds of sites damaged, either totally or partially, due to the stormy weather throughout Saturday.

Jalajel, a resident of Silwan area in Jerusalem, said rain water leaked into his house and damaged most of the furniture and electrical appliances. He said the water leaked in enormous quantities from both the front and back sides of the house, forcing the eleven members of his family out of the house. "We are homeless today and we are waiting for help," he said.

Residents of Wadi Al Joz, another neighborhood in East Jerusalem, said a boy fell in a stream of water caused by the heavy rain that fell during Saturday and had been shoved away. A police spokesman claimed later the police rescue force looked for the boy using divers but "they found nobody."

Jericho was the most affected part of the PNA areas that were struck with the stormy weather. The town's municipality said it had mobilized all its resources to help Palestinian farmers in the area whose land was swept with rain and strong winds. Jericho Mayor Abdul Karim Sider said what happened in the area was the worst catastrophe the town of Jericho had ever witnessed. He said the damage covered some 50 to 70 percent of the yearly crops. He estimated the losses at millions of dollars.

Other PNA areas that were struck by the stormy weather included the Gaza Strip, Nablus, Tulkarem, Jenin and Hebron. The Palestinian authorities declared a state of emergency but no deaths were reported, except for a car accident on the Hebron road in which an Israeli contractor and his six Romanian workers died.