‘The Water is Surrounding Us’: Gaza Grieves as Israel Opens Floodgates January 12, 2023 Pam Rogers Without warning, on Saturday, December 24, Israeli Authorities opened the floodgates below Deir al-Balah, inundating the Al-Selqa Valley’s agricultural lands and flooding dozens of homes. ‘The Water is Surrounding Us’: Gaza Grieves as Israel Opens Floodgates Israel flooded dozens of homes and hundreds of dunums of agricultural lands in Gaza. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)