Gaza's Displaced Families Face Devastation as Winter Storm Floods Thousands of Tents

Thousands of tents housing displaced Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip have been flooded following heavy rains and the season's first winter storm. The deluge has forced families out into the cold, with Gaza's civil defence agency reporting approximately 1,500 distress calls within 10 hours. Water levels in several shelter sites rose by 30-40 cm (12-16 inches), submerging tents and displacing residents.

"What we feared has actually happened," stated Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal to Al Jazeera. "A few shelter centres were completely flooded, and everyone inside them has now been forced out into the unknown." Basal highlighted the extreme vulnerability of premature babies, the elderly, and the sick, warning that those in tents are at constant risk of death and illness.

The storm also exacerbated existing damage to structures in the besieged territory. Rescuers evacuated residents from a building in the Nuseirat area that partially collapsed due to strong winds and rain. In northern Gaza, heavy rainfall caused a building wall to collapse, injuring two people, according to the Wafa news agency. Footage from camps in Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Deir el-Balah depicted families navigating ankle-deep water, with soaked belongings and children standing barefoot in mud and sewage.

Nour Khaled, reporting for Al Jazeera from a camp in Gaza City, described the dire situation, noting that even sturdy houses struggle against the rain, let alone tents made of plastic sheeting. She highlighted that over 28,000 widows are among those facing winter alone with their children.

In al-Mawasi, a coastal area in southern Gaza where over 900,000 displaced individuals are sheltering, rain began on Friday night. Residents woke to find hundreds, even thousands, of tents flooded. Rami Abu Taima, reporting from Khan Younis for Al Jazeera, noted that more than 125,000 families along the coast are at risk of their tents being swept away by the sea.

Gaza's emergency committee estimates that over one million displaced people are facing winter dangers and urgently require approximately 200,000 tents and heating supplies. Raed al-Dahshan, director of civil defence in Gaza governorate, expressed the limitations of his crews, stating, "Civil Defence does not have a single tarpaulin or a single tent. We deal only with saving lives, and that is not enough."

Aid groups attribute the lack of essential materials to Israeli restrictions on entry. Mohammed Salha, director of the Palestinian NGO Network, informed Al Jazeera that only 180 to 200 trucks enter Gaza daily, falling significantly short of the 600 agreed upon under the humanitarian protocol. Of these, only about 40 carry humanitarian aid. Salha emphasized the need for proactive measures, stating, "We don’t want to respond after the tents flood. We must respond before the disaster happens." He noted that 50,000 tents are awaiting passage on the Egyptian side of the border and criticized the international pressure on Israel to allow more supplies as "timid."