--- title: "Gaza’s winter comes in borrowed clothes, and a nine-month-old dies of the cold" description: "Flooded tarps, 40-shekel tracksuits and a hypothermia death: displaced families in Gaza City face the cold with almost nothing" author: "Jan Sokol" published: 2026-11-12T17:18:13Z modified: 2026-11-12T23:26:08Z url: https://rews.cc/a/gaza-s-winter-comes-in-borrowed-clothes-and-a-nine-month-old-57eeab language: en tags: ["gaza", "war", "health", "infrastructure", "aid", "mideast"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Gaza’s winter comes in borrowed clothes, and a nine-month-old dies of the cold *Flooded tarps, 40-shekel tracksuits and a hypothermia death: displaced families in Gaza City face the cold with almost nothing* By Jan Sokol · November 12, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/gaza-s-winter-comes-in-borrowed-clothes-and-a-nine-month-old-57eeab ## In brief - Amira Saad, 27, borrowed a warm garment for her four-month-old son, who mostly has thin summer clothes - Nine-month-old Kinan Ahmed Raqiq died of hypothermia on Thursday; at least 11 children died of it last winter, per the ministry - The November 6 storm flooded about 70,000 tents by local count; the UN put it at about 26,000 households - OCHA says 94% of Gazans need shelter aid and 650,000 children need winter help; UNICEF seeks $97.5m - In Rimal market, winter tracksuits cost 40–50 shekels, about twice what one seller thinks families can afford In Gaza, winter is measured by what a child wears. Amira Saad is 27, and her son Mohammed is four months old. Nearly everything he owns is thin summer clothing. She cannot afford winter clothes, so she borrowed one warm garment from a neighbour. At night the temperature drops inside the makeshift shelter west of Gaza City, and that garment is most of what protects the boy, [Maram Humaid reported for Al Jazeera](https://aljazeera.com/features/2026/11/12/her-hands-are-as-cold-as-ice-gaza-families-struggle-to-keep-warm). His mother still lies awake worrying about the cold. Nineteen people live under that shelter: Amira and 18 relatives, nine of them children. They were driven out of Shujayea, the eastern neighbourhood of Gaza City that families have [kept leaving, moving west](https://rews.cc/a/gaza-s-yellow-line-was-meant-to-move-east-families-in-shujay-af7322). Their roof is a tarp. When the heavy rain came, the tarp failed. > “The water came inside and soaked our blankets, mattresses and pillows.” ## The household Basima Saad, Amira’s mother-in-law, is 60. She cares for her 23-year-old daughter, who has a disability and needs medicine and warm clothes. “Her hands become as cold as ice,” Basima said. “I keep her beside me in bed to warm her.” A mother’s own body has become the family’s heater. ![Two people huddle beneath a red blanket under a leaking blue tarpaulin, surrounded by puddles and bundled belongings.](https://rews.cc/img/2caf16889aac22320b35be2168655de6b7c61df5.webp) The family has no regular income and eats from community kitchens. Amira’s husband found work clearing rubble and broke his hand doing it. Here the ruins are both the danger and the only paid work. ## Thursday On Thursday, a nine-month-old boy named Kinan Ahmed Raqiq died of hypothermia. His father told AFP that the baby’s skin had turned blue. It has happened before. Gaza’s Ministry of Health says at least 11 children died of hypothermia last winter. ## The storm The first storm of the season arrived on the evening of Friday, November 6. Gaza’s Government Media Office said about 70,000 tents were flooded within 12 hours, [Al Jazeera reported](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/7/rains-flood-thousands-of-tents-in-gaza). The United Nations gave a smaller figure, about 26,000 households, and the International Rescue Committee [counted at least five dead](https://www.rescue.org/press-release/least-5-dead-26000-households-flooded-people-gaza-face-fourth-winter-tents). The two counts measure different things, tents against households, but they remain far apart. On November 9 UNICEF said the flooding had affected more than 106,000 people, and that some 950,000 people live in areas prone to flooding. The International Organization for Migration [described worn-out tents collapsing](https://www.iom.int/news/misery-thousands-gaza-tents-flood-iom-warns-further-hardship-winter-deepens) and children wading through knee-deep, contaminated water. For many families this is a [fourth winter under canvas](https://rews.cc/a/gaza-s-fourth-winter-in-tents-begins-with-a-two-hour-storm-a-fb3031). ![A barefoot child holding shoes stands in floodwater amid rain-soaked tents, with damaged buildings beneath a dark, cloudy sky.](https://rews.cc/img/751152db9749f993945da346431af3c3cca939bf.webp) ## The figures from the offices The UN humanitarian office, OCHA, puts the scale plainly. Ninety-four percent of Gaza’s population urgently needs shelter assistance. Sixty-five percent of households live in tents or makeshift shelters. About 650,000 children need winter aid. By September, aid agencies had winter clothing for only 9,000 households and bedding for 50,000. UNICEF is seeking $97.5m for its 2026–27 winter response, aiming to reach 540,000 children in Gaza and the West Bank. Behind these numbers is the war’s own count: more than 74,600 Palestinians killed, more than 176,000 wounded, and nearly two million displaced. An appeal always arrives in round numbers and a season late. Mohammed Saad was born into a summer and is spending his first winter in clothes meant for it. ## Zeitoun Amal al-Maydana is 46, a mother of seven from the Zeitoun neighbourhood. She has been displaced six times. In January 2025 an Israeli quadcopter killed her husband, Hamza. In November 2025 a sniper killed her eldest son, Haitham, who was 25. Her daughters Rimas and Malak still wear summer clothes, and the tent leaks. “We have no means of heating ourselves; we just cover the children with blankets,” she said. ![Two people sleep under an orange blanket inside a blue tent, with folded clothes, sandals, and a metal basin catching drips from a leak.](https://rews.cc/img/aa2449fdba0309d72d40c0a1658a064d847019a4.webp) ## Rimal market Warm clothes are for sale in Gaza City, just not at prices people can pay. Mohammed Abu Shanar, 25, owns a shop in Rimal market and sells four to six winter tracksuits a day. He blames Israeli restrictions and the costs charged by wholesalers. His tracksuits sell for 40 to 50 shekels ($12.60–$15.70). He thinks his customers could manage 20 to 25 shekels ($6.25–$7.80). He put more than 20,000 shekels, about $6,265, into winter stock. After three weeks he has recovered less than 5,000 shekels, about $1,570. So the clothes sit on the rails, the children shiver in the tents, and the shopkeeper loses money in between. A siege can ruin the seller and the buyer at once and leave both of them cold. ## Beit Hanoun Anas Hamad comes from Beit Hanoun, in the far north. He once ran a supermarket that employed his four brothers. All five men are university graduates, and all five are now out of work. He buys second-hand clothes for his three children. When his five-year-old daughter, Jana, asked for a new shirt, all he could do was point to the hand-me-down she already had on. The family has lived in its tent for about two years. Rain comes through the roof and water seeps up from the ground. Every purchase now means giving up something else. “I have to choose between buying food for my children, getting them warm clothes and blankets, or buying tarpaulins,” he said.