Rabat – A powerful winter storm has battered the Gaza Strip, worsening an already catastrophic humanitarian situation for the 1.5 million displaced Palestinians sheltering in makeshift camps across the enclave.
Heavy rainfall, plunging temperatures, and near-continuous flooding have overwhelmed flimsy tents, destroyed what little shelter displaced families had, and led to multiple deaths, including infants who succumbed to the cold.
Gaza’s civil defence said it has received more than 2,500 distress signals from families whose tents were torn apart or swept away by rainwater. Entire displacement camps in Khan Younis, Deir el-Balah, Nuseirat, and Gaza City were submerged as stormwater mixed with sewage, creating conditions described as “unlivable.”
“Displaced citizens with their children and women are now drowning,” the civil defence said, warning that the storm has struck at a moment when Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continues to block essential supplies, including tens of thousands of tents, mobile homes and equipment needed to repair water and sewage networks destroyed during the war.
At least two babies have died in recent hours due to the freezing temperatures.
In one case, a newborn girl died in northern Gaza after her mother tried desperately to protect her as rain poured into their makeshift shelter.
“It was raining, fiercely cold and I had very little to keep her warm,” her mother told Al Jazeera. “I wrapped her up the best I could, but it wasn’t enough… Suddenly I found my little baby motionless. Dead.”
A nine-month-old girl also died in Khan Younis as cold swept through the overcrowded settlements where families have no heating, insufficient blankets, and tents riddled with holes.
Others in Gaza City have set up tents along the coastline, the only open space left, but they are now at risk of rising tides that could sweep those tents away.
UN agencies say the situation is entirely preventable. UNRWA warned that overcrowded, cold, and unsanitary conditions are driving illness and infections, and said the suffering “could be prevented by unhindered humanitarian aid.”
But Gaza’s Government Media Office says Israel has only allowed 20,000 tents into the enclave, though 300,000 are urgently needed. More than 22,000 tents have already been destroyed by storms.