美国有线新闻 CNN 2013-12-22

 We are starting today in Gaza.  You have heard the mention of the region in Middle East before, often in the context of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But further complicating 1 life in the area, severe flooding started with a very rare snow storm, the first in decades. But then rain and rising waters knocked out power. That causes problems for medical care and city services, delays in delivery of much needed fuel, and that is just its toll 2 on infrastructure 3. 

 
In a place that is already bladed and bleed for years of war in a lack of resources, a winter storm is pushing people to the brink 4. In some of the tightly woven neighborhood, several days of torrential rain have created rivers where there should be roads. The Hamas government says more than five thousand people have been forced from their homes in Gaza. 
 
W and her six children fled to an overcrowded shelter. They had no choice but to abandon the room they all slept in and leave behind everything they had. She says she came here because her house was destroyed,the roof fell in and the water soaked the mattresses 5 and blankets. There was noway to savage 6 things and dry out. A lone 7 power plant was shut off last month, causing 12-hour black out with a fuel shortage.
 
On the tour of destruction brought by the winter storm, Hamas minister gets a near fall as he approaches a farmer.
 
I almost freeze to death, the farmer yells out. 
 
The farmer is destroyed, because this storm has flooded his field and frozen his crops, which means he would suffer along difficult year, not just a hard winter. He said he is totally ruined.There is nothing left, not the greenhouse nor his fields of peas, carrots, cucumbers and potatoes. It's all completely destroyed, he tells us.  
 
Here the blame game is in endless stream of slights Hamas lays up in Israel's streets, but the blame goes both ways. And Israeli Egyptian blockade, that Israel says is in place to curb 8 the flow of weapons into Gaze, is also slowing down the important things such as fuel and building supplies. On Friday, Israel opened a main crossing to allow in fuel and water pumps to help alleviate 9 the flooding. According to the UN agency there, the damage from the flood has created disaster zones in part of Gaza, in a place that is always lacking, more help can come as soon enough. 
 
US national security agency has made international headlines this year, started when a former NSA worker named Edward Snowden leaked classified information. Part of them indicated the USA has collected billions of phone and email records of American citizens. While a federal judge ruled Monday the NSA's collection of American phones records is unconstitutional, but it was likely a violation 10 of privacy rights. The ruling is in favor of four palliatives suing the government, but it is limited only to those four not everyone whose phone records might have been collected. This ruling could open the door to more legal challenges though. US justice department is studying the ruling. It says the NSA’s spy program protected the privacy of American citizens.