Winter floods devastate Gaza displacement camps amid Israeli aid restrictions
Torrential rains flood Gaza, leaving displaced families battling to survive as aid remains scarce and Israeli devastation looms large.
Winter rains battered the Gaza Strip over the weekend, inundating displacement camps with ankle-deep water as Palestinians struggled to remain dry inside fragile, deteriorating tents. The affected families are among the millions displaced by more than two years of Israel’s genocidal war, which has devastated much of the besieged territory.
In Khan Younis, water-soaked blankets and flooded clay cooking ovens compounded the hardship. Children wearing flip-flops waded through pools of water, while adults frantically used shovels and tin containers to drain tents or salvage collapsed shelters from thick mud.
“Puddles formed and there was a terrible smell,” said Majdoleen Tarabein, who was displaced from Rafah in southern Gaza. “The tent was blown away. We don’t know what to do or where to go.” She and her family tried to wring out drenched blankets by hand.
Eman Abu Riziq, also displaced in Khan Younis, described waking up to find water flooding her shelter. “The water entered the tent while we were sleeping,” she said. “The mattresses are completely soaked.” She added that her family is still mourning the death of her husband less than two weeks ago.
“Where are the mediators?” asked Fatima Abu Omar as she struggled to keep her collapsing shelter standing. “We don’t want food or anything else. We are exhausted. We just need mattresses and covers.”
According to Gaza authorities, at least 15 people, including three infants, have died this month from hypothermia caused by heavy rains and falling temperatures.
Emergency responders have warned residents against seeking refuge in damaged buildings due to the risk of collapse. However, with much of Gaza reduced to rubble by relentless Israeli bombardment, safe shelter options remain extremely limited. United Nations estimates from July indicate that nearly 80 percent of Gaza’s buildings have been destroyed or damaged.
Despite the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that 414 people have been killed and 1,142 injured since it came into effect, bringing the overall Palestinian death toll to at least 71,266.
Humanitarian organisations say aid deliveries remain far below the levels required under the ceasefire agreement. While the Israeli military authority overseeing aid claimed that 4,200 trucks entered Gaza last week—along with sanitation equipment and winter supplies—it declined to disclose how many tents were delivered. Aid groups stress that current assistance falls drastically short of urgent needs.
Since the ceasefire, approximately 72,000 tents and 403,000 tarpaulins have entered Gaza, according to the Shelter Cluster, an international humanitarian coalition led by the Norwegian Refugee Council.
“People in Gaza are surviving in fragile, water-logged tents amid ruins,” said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UN’s refugee agency for Palestine, in a social media statement. “This situation is not inevitable. Aid is simply not being allowed in at the scale required.”
