---
title: "Gaza’s fourth winter in tents begins with a two-hour storm and 1,500 calls for help"
description: "Rain flooded tens of thousands of tents and threatened bomb-damaged buildings, while shelter supplies wait at Gaza’s borders"
author: "Jan Sokol"
published: 2026-11-08T09:28:52Z
modified: 2026-11-08T17:57:01Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/gaza-s-fourth-winter-in-tents-begins-with-a-two-hour-storm-a-fb3031
language: en
tags: ["gaza", "war", "infrastructure", "floods", "shelter", "mideast"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Gaza’s fourth winter in tents begins with a two-hour storm and 1,500 calls for help

*Rain flooded tens of thousands of tents and threatened bomb-damaged buildings, while shelter supplies wait at Gaza’s borders*

By Jan Sokol · November 8, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/gaza-s-fourth-winter-in-tents-begins-with-a-two-hour-storm-a-fb3031

## In brief

- Heavy rain and wind from late Friday damaged the tents and shelters of tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians across Gaza
- Palestinian Civil Defence logged more than 1,500 emergency calls and says at least 300,000 tents are needed
- About 1,700 families live in al-Mina camp in northern Gaza, where tents flooded and one collapsed on a family of 11
- OCHA says about 950,000 displaced people live in flood-exposed areas and winter shelter supplies cover 18 percent of needs
- Save the Children says Israeli authorities are keeping tents, shelter kits and fuel from entering Gaza

The rain started late on Friday and kept falling through the night, with strong wind behind it, across the whole length of the Gaza Strip. By Sunday the Palestinian Civil Defence had logged more than 1,500 emergency calls, and the tents and shelters of tens of thousands of displaced people had been damaged, [Al Jazeera reported](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/8/floods-in-gaza-leave-tens-of-thousands-without-shelter). Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili said the makeshift tents people have been forced into cannot stand up to harsh weather. The storm, he said, “exposed just how fragile the protection is.”

For many of these families it is the fourth winter of displacement since the war began in October 2023.

## Al-Mina, by the sea

About 1,700 Palestinian families live in al-Mina camp in northern Gaza. Overnight the ground there turned into pools of muddy water. [Writing for Al Jazeera from Gaza City](https://aljazeera.com/features/2026/11/7/buildings-damaged-in-israel-bombing-at-risk-of-collapse-as-rain-floods-gaza), Lina Ghassan Abu Zayed found Rana Adnan Hmeida, 29, at the entrance of her tent with her two-month-old daughter in her arms, trying to keep the baby warm. The family had been awake since midnight. Water had come in and soaked the bedding, the blankets and every piece of clothing they owned, so she asked neighbours to help dry them.

> In the morning, I found my son and little daughter shivering. My two-month-old baby was freezing.

The wind blew so hard, she said, that she thought the tent might be pulled out of the ground. Then she asked the question every parent in the camp was facing that night: “What am I supposed to do? Hold my children or try to stop the water?”

![A cloaked adult cradles a bundled child inside a flooded tent, holding back the flap to reveal rain, rough seas, and other tents.](https://rews.cc/img/023c2ad43cc5dfdd343688b9e55ea303911e4522.webp)

Her husband, Sameh Hmeida, 30, explained why their tent fared so badly. It stands close to the sea and has no tarpaulins and no insulation. Nearby, the tent of Raed Abu Amsha, 40, fell in on his family. He is raising nine children, four of them his late brother’s, and the storm soaked all their clothes and blankets. It “lasted only two hours,” he said, “and look what it did to us.” He asked for tents and tarpaulins, and then for something no tarpaulin can give him: “How long are we going to keep living like this?”

## Nuseirat, under the hole

A roof is no protection either. Nuseirat in central Gaza is a camp decades old, built of permanent structures. Nasser al-Hajj, 54, lives there in a tower block that was hit by an Israeli strike in September 2025. Falling debris punched a large hole in his ceiling, and the rain now comes in through it. Beams have been put up to hold the ceiling, but an engineer has told him the apartment is dangerous and that more rubble could come down in bad weather. When the storm hit he took his children to a neighbour’s home. Two of his children, who have autism, sleep in the building’s guard room.

“I am forced to live somewhere that could collapse over our heads at any moment,” he said. Rents are high, and a tent is no safer. He has, in his words, “no other option.” In September, rews described [families living in buildings that may fall](https://rews.cc/a/a-tent-under-the-broken-roof-gaza-families-shelter-in-buildi-acf87a). The first heavy rain of the season has now put those buildings to the test.

![Rain pours through a collapsed concrete ceiling supported by wooden posts, pooling on a ruined room’s floor beside a chair holding folded blankets.](https://rews.cc/img/ff9994271c3e90a9846baaae06c3be04f63fd195.webp)

## The arithmetic of water

The figures came from several offices, and they do not all match. According to the UN humanitarian office OCHA, as cited by Al Jazeera, about 950,000 displaced people live in areas exposed to flooding. More than 400,000 of them are in high-risk zones, mostly low-lying and coastal sites, and about 44,000 live in structurally unsafe buildings. More than 4,000 buildings need full or partial demolition. Some 294,250 families need winter shelter assistance, and the supplies on hand cover 18 percent of that. Al-Khalili put the number of displaced people in places “highly vulnerable” to more flooding at almost 400,000.

Gaza’s Government Media Office said 70,000 tents were flooded, dozens of walls collapsed and the damage came to about $3m. The Civil Defence said more than 2,000 buildings are at risk of collapse and that at least 300,000 tents are needed. On Saturday alone the rain raised water levels by 30 to 40cm (12 to 16in) in several camps.

The water had nowhere to go. Hosni Muhanna, spokesperson for the Gaza Municipality, listed the damage: about 15km of rainwater drainage lines and 212km of sewage networks, with eight pumping stations and three main stormwater basins out of service. What remains of the system can handle at most 20 percent of the rainwater, and that is in the best conditions. Municipal workers are clearing drains, manholes and channels, removing rubbish, repairing lines and running pumps. Muhanna said the municipality would “continue to clean drainage systems in preparation for the rainy season”, but that shortages of fuel, equipment and spare parts mean the network cannot be restored. In Gaza City alone, he said, the rubble exceeds 25 million tonnes, part of the [mass under which the missing still lie](https://rews.cc/a/in-gaza-the-missing-lie-under-61-million-tonnes-of-rubble-an-9b6d49).

![Muddy water swirls through a broken metal drain grate amid concrete rubble and exposed rebar, with a shovel leaning on the left.](https://rews.cc/img/2c8ac4b3f8f7ea8e05f9191d21f6c7a354897910.webp)

In Nuseirat, the local emergency committee is handing out tents and tarpaulins, giving priority to families hit by the rain, and helping people dig channels to divert the water. “We are trying to provide as many tents and tarpaulins as possible,” said Adli Awad, a committee official. He said the need is far larger than his stock.

## At the borders

The stock is not missing. It is held at the borders. Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children International’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, called the situation “heartbreaking” and “entirely foreseeable.” His staff saw water swallow whole camps overnight and children with no winter clothing. Tents, shelter kits and fuel, he said, are waiting at Gaza’s borders because Israeli authorities will not let them in.

> This is a choice, and children are paying the price.

Jonathan Veitch, UNICEF’s special representative in Palestine, said most people are living in “terrible conditions” and called for more money for aid. In Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Ashraf Abu Amra reported that families flooded out of their tents had received no food aid since early Saturday. Last month the crossings [closed and the food agency’s money ran out in the same week](https://rews.cc/a/in-gaza-the-price-of-an-egg-doubles-as-israel-halts-commerci-62c973).

A “ceasefire” has been in place since October 2025. Since it began, according to Al Jazeera’s count, Israel has killed at least 1,610 Palestinians, and more than 74,640 have been killed since October 2023. Winter has barely started. The first storm lasted two hours, and for Raed Abu Amsha’s nine children it was long enough.

## Sources

- [Floods in Gaza leave tens of thousands without shelter](https://aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/8/floods-in-gaza-leave-tens-of-thousands-without-shelter) — aljazeera.com
- [Buildings damaged in Israeli bombings risk collapse as rain inundates Gaza](https://aljazeera.com/features/2026/11/7/buildings-damaged-in-israel-bombing-at-risk-of-collapse-as-rain-floods-gaza) — aljazeera.com