‘We woke up soaking wet’: Gaza’s displaced face another winter of floods and collapsed shelters

‘We woke up soaking wet’: Gaza’s displaced face another winter of floods and collapsed shelters

Submitted by Ahmed Dremly on Tue, 11/10/2026 - 11:52 Heavy rains flood tents and threaten damaged buildings, leaving families with nowhere safe to go as Israel restricts humanitarian supplies
Displaced Palestinians at a partially flooded tent camp during a rainy day in Gaza City, 7 November 2026 (Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters) Off

For the past four days, Nahla al-Majdoub, 48, and her family of eight have been staying with neighbours in the west of Gaza City after their tent was destroyed by the latest heavy rainfall.

Majdoub and her family had been sheltering in a makeshift tent at the port of Gaza for nearly two years after their home in the northern Gaza Strip was destroyed during Israel’s ground invasion.

But when heavy rain and strong winds swept across the besieged enclave last week, their fragile shelter could no longer protect them.

They were asleep when the storm began. They woke to the sound of thunder and rainwater pouring into their shelter, seeping through the roof and flooding the ground beneath their tent.

“I woke up soaking wet. I looked at my children, who were also wet and surrounded by water. We cried helplessly, not knowing what to do or how to protect them,” Majdoub said.

“I tried to collect the water inside the tent and push it outside, but it kept coming through the holes in the fabric and from underneath as the water continued to flood in.”

As the wind grew stronger, parts of the tent’s tarpaulin began to tear away. Fearing that the tent would collapse in the heavy rain while her young children were inside, Majdoub called on neighbours to help secure it and pile more sand around its edges.

But the situation deteriorated quickly.

“I decided to take my children and seek shelter in one of my neighbours’ stronger tents. As we were moving, the tarpaulin flew away and the tent collapsed while one of my daughters was still inside,” she said.

“All our clothes, mattresses and belongings were soaked. I stood in the rain, looking at the destroyed tent and everything we had lost, not knowing what to do.”

‘We do not want to die from the cold’: Gaza families struggle as rain floods shelters Read More »

The family managed to retrieve their mattresses, but they remained wet. Majdoub said her children had been wearing the same wet clothes for four days because the few clothes they owned had all been soaked.

The flooding has added to the hardship Majdoub has faced since being wounded in an Israeli air strike in October 2025 while out shopping for her family.

“Shrapnel from the missile tore through my intestines. I underwent several surgeries, and the doctors told me they had fitted me with artificial intestines,” she said.

“I need regular medication that costs 170 shekels a week, which I have to take after eating, but I cannot afford it. I am always in pain, and the cold is making it worse.”

Majdoub is also worried about her seven-year-old daughter Aya, who has diabetes, as the family faces another winter without adequate shelter.

“We are a poor family. We cannot afford to buy another tent or tarpaulin every time a strong winter storm hits. Sometimes I have to ask neighbours to give us food for the children,” she said.

Majdoub and her family are staying with neighbours until the weather improves and they can try to rebuild their shelter.

“I am sorry that my family’s biggest dream now is just to have a strong tent that can withstand heavy rain and protect us from the cold,” she said.

‘We were soaked and unable to sleep'

For Sameh Doghomoush, 33, the latest storm exposed the limits of his attempts to protect his family from another winter in Gaza.

Doghomoush, his wife and their three sons live in their partially destroyed house in the al-Sabra neighbourhood, east of Gaza City.

Having experienced the previous winter, Doghomoush tried to prepare for the latest rainfall after learning about it on social media. He bought additional tarpaulins and spent two days securing openings in the roof and covering the building’s destroyed walls.

He and his wife Sana, 27, also placed basins and pots beneath the largest holes in the roof to catch the rainwater and prevent it from spreading through the house.

But their efforts failed within hours of the first rainfall.

“Rainwater flooded my house through the destroyed roof and broken windows. We were soaked and had to sit in the dark and wait until morning, unable to sleep,” he said.

“My three sons caught the cold, and with every new wave of rain, we all became ill.”

Doghomoush said his family had not received a tent or tarpaulin since the war began, despite their urgent need for shelter materials.

“Perhaps the priority is given to people living out in the streets, but we also need help. The crossings must be opened and more urgent supplies allowed into Gaza so that we can protect ourselves and our children from the winter,” he said.

Before the war, Doghomoush said, his home measured 180 square metres. He also owned a fish restaurant and a car, all of which were lost during Israel's three-year war.

He has since spent his savings on food, transport, firewood, tarpaulins and other basic necessities to survive.

“I used to buy my children new clothes and devices and take them to amusement parks. Now they ask for ordinary things such as new clothes, food and books for school, and I cannot afford them. They miss having a normal life,” he said.

“I tell them that I will bring them everything in the future, while I think inside that I am not even able to protect them from the cold winter.”

Doghomoush fears that he and his family could be trapped if their weakened building collapses, leaving them without shelter or putting their lives at risk.

“We are exhausted by this life and by facing death through bombardment, starvation, helplessness and now cold. I appeal to international organisations and governments around the world to help end our suffering by pressuring Israel to allow the entry of basic equipment to rebuild Gaza, and to ensure that we and our children receive our basic right to shelter.”

Tens of thousands of tents flooded

The Gaza Government Media Office said that more than 70,000 tents sheltering hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians had been flooded during the first 12 hours of the latest storm.

“Sand embankments had collapsed and dozens of cracked walls had fallen on displaced people, killing five people, wounding dozens more, while two people remain missing. The initial financial losses are estimated at more than $3m,” the media office told Middle East Eye.

'All our clothes, mattresses and belongings were soaked. I stood in the rain, looking at the destroyed tent and everything we had lost, not knowing what to do'

- Nahla al-Majdoub, displaced Palestinian

It also warned that “dozens of buildings, partially destroyed by years of intense Israeli bombardment, were now at risk of collapse as rainwater saturated the ground beneath them”.

“Israel had systematically destroyed more than 90 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure, including sewage networks, forcing Palestinians to crowd into dangerous areas where displacement camps had become increasingly exposed to flooding and other hazards.”

The office added that the destruction of infrastructure, combined with restrictions on the entry of shelter materials and other essential supplies, had made the humanitarian situation increasingly difficult as winter approached.

It said municipal and civil defence teams were working to respond to the damage but faced severe shortages of equipment and resources, alongside a huge gap between the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza and the actual needs of displaced people.

The office called on the international community to move beyond statements of condemnation and take action to secure the opening of crossings and the continuous entry of humanitarian supplies.

“Gaza urgently needed more than 100,000 new tents capable of withstanding harsh winter conditions, in addition to tens of thousands of mobile homes and temporary housing units and the entry of materials and equipment needed to repair infrastructure, sewage networks and rainwater drainage systems.”

Israel's political calculation

Palestinian political analyst and researcher Talal Abu Rokbeh said Israel is continuing to exert pressure on Palestinians in Gaza by worsening humanitarian conditions, including restricting the entry of essential shelter and protection supplies.

'I used to buy my children new clothes and take them to amusement parks. Now they ask for ordinary things and I cannot afford them'

- Hamed Doghomoush, displaced Palestinian

“The international community bears part of the responsibility because of its silence and its failure to hold Israel accountable or exert pressure on it to ensure the entry of humanitarian aid and provide protection,” Abu Rokbeh told MEE.

“Israel is seeking to frame the Palestinian cause as a humanitarian crisis rather than a political question concerning a people striving to exercise their right to self-determination, achieve national independence and establish an independent state.

“Israel is attempting to shift the world's attention towards the humanitarian dimension at the expense of the political one, rather than addressing the issue as a political question that requires a political solution.”

Abu Rokbeh added that the seriousness of any shift in US policy in the coming period should be measured by concrete developments on the ground.

These include whether the Palestinian technocratic committee is enabled to assume its responsibilities in Gaza, whether an international stabilisation force is deployed, and whether Israel is compelled to withdraw from the areas it has recently occupied, which account for 70 percent of the Gaza Strip.

Abu Rokbeh also said that the implementation of the humanitarian protocol and an urgent increase in aid deliveries to Gaza would be important indicators of a genuine shift in policy.

Some 65 percent of Gaza’s population, about 1.4 million people, live in tents or makeshift shelters, according to the UN aid coordination office.

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