Winter floods wreak havoc on Gaza displacement camps as Israel blocks aid

Winter rain has lashed the Gaza Strip over the weekend, flooding displacement camps with ankle-deep water as Palestinians struggled to stay dry in flimsy, worn-out tents. These Palestinians have been displaced after more than two years of Israel’s genocidal war, which has destroyed much of the besieged enclave.

In Khan Younis, soaked blankets and swamped clay cooking ovens added to the misery. Children in flip-flops navigated through puddles while adults desperately used shovels and tin cans to remove water from tents or extracted collapsed shelters from mud.

“Puddles formed, and there was a bad smell,” said Majdoleen Tarabein, displaced from Rafah in southern Gaza. “The tent flew away. We don’t know what to do or where to go.”

She and her family attempted to wring sodden blankets dry by hand.

“When we woke up in the morning, we found that the water had entered the tent,” said Eman Abu Riziq, also displaced in Khan Younis. “These are the mattresses. They are all completely soaked.”

She added that her family is still grieving her husband’s death less than two weeks ago.

“Where are the mediators? We don’t want food. We don’t want anything. We are exhausted. We just want mattresses and covers,” pleaded Fatima Abu Omar while trying to stabilise a collapsing shelter.

At least 15 people, including three babies, have died this month from hypothermia following the rains and plunging temperatures, according to the authorities in Gaza.

Emergency workers have warned against staying in damaged buildings due to collapse risks, yet with most of the territory in rubble after relentless and ongoing Israeli bombardment, shelter options are scarce. United Nations estimates from July indicate nearly 80 percent of Gaza’s buildings have been destroyed or damaged.

Since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began, 414 people have been killed and 1,142 wounded, with the overall Palestinian death toll reaching at least 71,266, according to the Health Ministry.

Aid deliveries to Gaza fall significantly short of ceasefire-mandated amounts, humanitarian organisations report. The Israeli military authority overseeing humanitarian aid stated that 4,200 aid trucks entered Gaza in the past week, along with sanitation equipment and winter supplies, but refused to specify the quantity of tents provided. Aid groups emphasise that current supplies cannot meet overwhelming needs.

Since the ceasefire, approximately 72,000 tents and 403,000 tarps have entered Gaza, according to Shelter Cluster, an international aid coalition led by the Norwegian Refugee Council.

“People in Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents and among ruins,” Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UN refugee aid organisation in Gaza, said on social media. “There is nothing inevitable about this. Aid supplies are not being allowed in at the scale required.”