Gazans plead for shelter as winter rains raise fears of further illness and death

Aid agencies have renewed their call for Israel to allow tents and urgently needed supplies to be set up in the Gaza Strip following the first heavy rains of the winter, saying more than 250,000 families are in need of emergency assistance to shelter.

“This winter we will lose lives. Children and families will be destroyed,” said Jan Egeland, director general of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

“It is indeed very frustrating to have lost such a critical few weeks since the adoption of the Trump peace plan, which ensured that humanitarian aid would flow and that Palestinians would not continue to suffer unnecessarily.”

Two years of devastating war have displaced much of the population, and most Gazans now live in tents, many in makeshift tents.

It is recovering after widespread flooding caused by the winter storm that began Friday.

Rainwater mixing with sewage can spread diseases.

Fatima Hamduna wept in the rain at the weekend as she showed a BBC freelance journalist an ankle-deep puddle of water inside her temporary home in Gaza City.

“We have no food. The flour is all wet. We are ruined people. Where should we go? There is no shelter for us now.”

A similar thing happened in the southern city of Khan Yunis.

“My clothes, mattress and blankets were flooded,” said Nihad Shabat, who was trying to dry his belongings there on Monday.

Her family is sleeping in a shelter made of sheets and blankets.

“I'm worried that the water will flood again. I can't afford a tent.”

According to a recent United Nations report, more than 80% of buildings have been destroyed across Gaza, with 92% destroyed in Gaza City.

According to the NRC, a group of about 20 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that has long led Gaza's so-called shelter clusters, about 260,000 households, or about 1.5 million people, lack the basics to survive the winter and are in need of emergency shelter assistance.

NGOs say only about 19,000 tents have been brought into the Gaza Strip since the US-brokered Israeli-Hamas ceasefire took effect on October 10.

It said 44,000 pallets of aid, including non-food items such as tents and bedding, were blocked from entering. The purchased supplies are currently stuck in Egypt, Jordan, and Israel.

Jan Egeland blamed the holdup on a “bureaucratic, military and politicized quagmire” that “goes against all humanitarian principles”.

In March, Israel introduced a new registration process for aid organizations working in Gaza, citing security reasons. They are required to submit a list of local Palestinian staff.

But aid groups argue that data protection laws in donor countries prevent them from handing over such information.

Many items, including tent poles, are also classified by Israel as “dual-use” – military and civilian – and their entry is prohibited or severely restricted.

Kogat, the Israeli defense agency that manages the border crossing, told the BBC that “over the past few months” it had been coordinating the delivery of “nearly 190,000 tents and tarpaulins directly to residents of the Gaza Strip.”

The government said that “in accordance with the agreed terms” of the ceasefire, it was allowing “hundreds of trucks carrying food, water, fuel, gas, medicine, medical equipment, tents and shelter supplies to enter the Gaza Strip every day, in coordination with the United Nations, international organizations, donor countries and the private sector.”

On Sunday, Kogut wrote to X: “We call on international organizations to coordinate more tents, tarpaulins and other winter humanitarian responses.”

The government said it was working with the new US-led Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) established in southern Israel and other international partners to plan a “prepared humanitarian response for the coming winter.”

International aid groups hope the CMCC, which oversees the implementation of President Trump's 20-point Gaza peace plan, will help ease restrictions on operations.

They say basic shelter supplies should be allowed into the country until a foreign donor conference on the reconstruction of the Palestinian territories is scheduled to be held in Egypt soon and a long-term plan is drawn up.

“It's not good for all these countries to come together in Cairo and talk about the long-term rehabilitation of a Palestinian people who are in great need if a Palestinian dies before the skyscrapers are rebuilt,” said Egeland, a former U.N. emergency relief coordinator.

“They need tents today, but they don't need a promise to build on the beach in five years.”

Palestinians told the BBC that many tents brought in by international organizations and Gulf supporters were stolen and available on the black market in Gaza.

They say prices have fallen from around $2,700 (€2,330, £2,050) before the ceasefire to around $900 to $1,000 as supplies have increased slightly.

There are calls for international support to distribute more shelter more equitably.

“We hope that everyone will work with us to end this crisis that we are experiencing,” said Alaa Al Dirgali from Khan Yunis. “The tent lasted two years in the sun and two years in the rain, but it couldn't withstand this heavy rain.”

“Up to this moment, people are rebuilding broken tents because there is no alternative. I pray to God that those responsible for distributing tents will give them to those who really need them. Tents are being stolen and sold to people at very high prices.”

In Gaza City, Rami Deif Allah, an evacuee from Beit Hanun, was drying a wet mattress in the weak sunlight with his elderly mother and children.

A relative gave him a waterproof tent, but it was still flooded.

“We evacuated about 11 times, but there was no place safe for us, so we took shelter in these humble tents, but all in vain. When the rain came, they couldn't protect us,” he said. “Water was flooding in from above and below.”

Like all Gazans, Rami wants permanent residence.

“We pray that this war will end once and for all and that everyone will be able to return home,” he continued. “Even if the house is not built, we will rebuild it with sweat and blood. This situation of living on the streets is unbearable.”