Gaza rains leave thousands of households seeking help as shelters flood

Heavy rain and strong winds swept across Gaza from 6 November through the weekend, flooding displacement sites and disrupting services in all five governorates, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

By 8 November, humanitarian partners had received appeals from more than 26,000 households reporting damage to their shelters or belongings. The figures are preliminary: partners had assessed the needs of 1,877 households. OCHA said more than 6,000 family shelters had reportedly been destroyed.

OCHA cited Gaza’s civil defence as saying five displaced people, including three children, were killed when a sandy hill collapsed onto tents near Deir al-Balah. Nieuws.nl put the death toll from the collapse at four. OCHA also said an infant was reported to have drowned at a displacement site.

In central Gaza’s az-Zawayda area, water flooded Jaber al-Kaseeh’s family tent overnight, soaking mattresses and blankets, Al Jazeera reported. “We urgently need tents, tarpaulins, plastic sheets, mattresses, blankets and carpets to protect us from the difficult days ahead,” he told the broadcaster.

OCHA estimates that 1.4 million people, or 65 per cent of Gaza’s population, live in tents or makeshift shelters. Stocks of tents, tarpaulins, blankets and clothes inside Gaza are nearly exhausted, it said, while more than 150,000 tents are ready for dispatch outside the territory.

The agency said Israeli restrictions on supplies and equipment, alongside funding shortfalls, had constrained preparations for the rains. It called for further Israeli approvals and funding to bring in shelter supplies, pumps and other machinery.