GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Flooding from heavy rains has forced 40,000 Gaza Strip residents from their homes, including more than 5,000 who were evacuated by rescue workers using boats and heavy construction equipment, officials said Saturday.

The downpour began late Wednesday and was part of a storm that covered Jerusalem and some of the West Bank with a thick blanket of snow. Even parts of Gaza, a coastal territory with a milder climate, saw snow for the first time in years.

In Israel, 28,000 homes were without power Saturday, including thousands in Jerusalem.

In the low-lying areas of Gaza, rising water flooded streets and homes. One of the hardest-hit areas was Nafak Street in Gaza City’s Sheik Radwan neighborhood, close to a rainwater reservoir.

Said Halawa, a city resident, said the reservoir overflowed Wednesday evening. By Thursday, water had poured into the ground floor of his two-story home where he and 41 members of his extended family live, Halawa said.

The family called for help and was evacuated by boat from the upper floor. Halawa said he and his family were taken to a makeshift shelter in a neighborhood school.

“We got some assistance, some blankets and some food, but I didn’t save any of my belongings,” said the 52-year-old taxi driver.

Elsewhere on Nafak Street, local TV showed a rescuer standing on the shoulders of another man in a boat as they tried to reach people in a third-floor apartment. In all, about 5,250 people were rescued from flooded homes, said Mohammed al-Madaina of Gaza’s Civil Defense Department.

Another hard-hit area was the refugee camp of Jebaliya in northern Gaza.

“Large swaths of northern Gaza are a disaster area with water as far as the eye can see,” Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the main United Nations aid agency for Gaza refugees, wrote in an email to reporters.

The agency evacuated hundreds of families to U.N. facilities and distributed 5,000 liters of fuel to pumping stations, he said.

Housing Minister Yousef Jhariz, who headed the government’s crisis team, said the flooding forced about 40,000 people out of their homes. He said the storm caused at least $64 million in damage.

The storm hit Gaza at a time when it is buckling under widespread fuel shortages and rolling power cuts as a result of a tightened border blockade by neighboring Egypt.

Both Israel and Egypt have restricted access to Gaza since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized the territory in 2007. During, the summer, Egypt’s military intensified the blockade after ousting Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, a Hamas ally.

Gunness wrote that once the storm is over, “the world community needs to bring effective pressure to end the blockade of Gaza.”

Gaza residents “must be freed from these man-made constraints to deal with the impact of a natural calamity such as this,” he said.

Israel sent emergency aid to Gaza at the request of the U.N., said Maj. Guy Inbar, a military official. That included four water pumps and diesel fuel for heating.

Jerusalem, meanwhile, was crippled by snow for a third day Saturday.

Highways leading in and out of the city were shut down, and residents were advised to stay off the roads.

“We are in an exceptional event that Jerusalem has never seen,” said Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

Sietvanit Tzirnishki was in a crowded train headed from Jerusalem to snow-free Tel Aviv, Israel’s coastal metropolis.

“I’ve been stuck here in Jerusalem for two days at my sister’s apartment that did not have electricity,” she said. “We have been going from one apartment to the other to get some heat and some food, and I’m glad to get back to Tel Aviv now.” Information for this article was contributed by Josef Federman of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 9 on 12/15/2013