Middle East

Winter storm floods 70,000 tents across Gaza overnight

Nearly a million displaced people live on flood-exposed ground with shelter supplies covering 18 percent of need, blockade keeps out the caravans that would replace the tents

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Displaced Palestinian children use buckets to remove floodwater around their belongings outside a tent at a displacement camp in Gaza City, on November 7, 2026. Gaza's Government Media Office reported that heavy rain flooded at least 70,000 tents sheltering displaced Palestinians across the Gaza Strip within 12 hours. Displaced Palestinian children use buckets to remove floodwater around their belongings outside a tent at a displacement camp in Gaza City, on November 7, 2026. Gaza's Government Media Office reported that heavy rain flooded at least 70,000 tents sheltering displaced Palestinians across the Gaza Strip within 12 hours. Mohammed Al Qumsan / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images
Displaced Palestinians attempt to repair their damaged tents and cover gaps with plastic sheeting after heavy rain and strong winds in western Gaza CityPhotograph: Mohammed Salha/APAImages/ShutterstockShare Displaced Palestinians attempt to repair their damaged tents and cover gaps with plastic sheeting after heavy rain and strong winds in western Gaza CityPhotograph: Mohammed Salha/APAImages/ShutterstockShare theguardian.com
Families struggled to repair their worn shelters using basic tools and frayed ropes amid severe shortages of tarpaulins and insulation materials, raising concerns that the tents may collapse during upcoming stormsPhotograph: Mohammed Salha/APAImages/ShutterstockShare Families struggled to repair their worn shelters using basic tools and frayed ropes amid severe shortages of tarpaulins and insulation materials, raising concerns that the tents may collapse during upcoming stormsPhotograph: Mohammed Salha/APAImages/ShutterstockShare theguardian.com
Magdi Al-Omari, 28, a Palestinian amputee, walks through a rain-soaked tent camp after heavy rain in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/APShare Magdi Al-Omari, 28, a Palestinian amputee, walks through a rain-soaked tent camp after heavy rain in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/APShare theguardian.com
Children in a makeshift tent in Gaza City Photograph: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu/Getty ImagesShare Children in a makeshift tent in Gaza City Photograph: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu/Getty ImagesShare theguardian.com
Heavy rainfall in Gaza City on SaturdayPhotograph: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu/Getty ImagesShare Heavy rainfall in Gaza City on SaturdayPhotograph: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu/Getty ImagesShare theguardian.com

Heavy rain flooded at least 70,000 tents sheltering displaced Palestinians across the Gaza Strip within twelve hours overnight into Saturday, according to the territory's Government Media Office. In Gaza City, Khan Younis, Jabaliya and the Bureij camp, families spent the night bailing water out of nylon shelters with buckets.

The office estimates initial losses at $3 million and reports dozens of home walls collapsing, with injuries. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs counts about 950,000 displaced people living in areas exposed to flooding, more than 400,000 of them in high-risk zones — low-lying ground and the coastline. Some 44,000 people live in structurally unsafe buildings, and more than 4,000 buildings across the territory need full or partial demolition after Israeli air strikes. Tarpaulins and insulation materials are severely short, and the tents that survived the weekend are not expected to hold through coming storms.

Two years of war destroyed the housing stock, and the blockade on supplies — maintained by the Israeli and American governments through the approaching winter — has allowed nothing in to rebuild it. The journalist Abubaker Abed, citing health and media officials, reported families shelterless, food prices soaring and children starving and shivering, and called for caravans and mobile homes to be allowed into the territory.

"What is happening in Gaza is not a passing winter crisis," Health Minister Majed Abu Ramadan said in a statement, warning of a catastrophic deterioration in health and environmental conditions and growing risks of disease and epidemics without a rapid emergency response, and calling on the United Nations and humanitarian organizations to intervene to save hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

Mansour al-Sakni, 33, told Middle East Eye: "We woke up and found ourselves surrounded by water. The children were crying. I did not know what to do, and I started crying too." Magdi Al-Omari, 28, a Palestinian amputee, walked through the rain-soaked camp at Deir al-Balah after the storm.

The Government Media Office held Israel wholly responsible for the disaster. Ahead of winter, OCHA counts 294,250 families in need of shelter assistance; the supplies available cover 18 percent of them.