Rains swamp 70,000 tents in Gaza as families sleep standing up

More than 70,000 tents across Gaza have flooded since heavy rain began late on Friday, according to the territory's Government Media Office. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering in spots classified as highly vulnerable to further flooding, and the rain has not stopped.

The tents that were supposed to replace them never arrived. More than a year after the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was signed, Israel has kept blocking goods into Gaza, including 60,000 mobile homes and 200,000 tents. Only 20,000 tents have been let in, and the mobile homes have sat parked on the Egyptian side of the border, many for more than two years. The agreement's first phase also called for heavy machinery to clear rubble and repair infrastructure; that equipment is waiting too.

In az-Zawayda, central Gaza, Jaber al-Kaseeh, who is in his 70s, woke on Saturday night to water rushing into his tent. Mattresses, carpets and blankets soaked, and the family's remaining food spoiled. He compared the ground outside the camp to a swimming pool. Displaced from Beit Lahiya in the north, this is his fourth winter in a tent, and he says the camp flooded three or four times last winter alone, driving most families out. Around 40 tents are left. He told Al Jazeera they have received nothing, despite hearing about distributions, and dismissed the promised mobile homes as words in the air.

Aid numbers show how far short the supplies fall. Gaza needs roughly 121,000 tents and 561,000 tarpaulins, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, while available stocks remain far below that. More than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians face another winter in worn-out tents, said Ramy Abdu, chairman of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, who added that large quantities of tents, caravans, prefabricated housing and shelter equipment are stranded at the borders because of Israeli restrictions. With about 85 percent of homes destroyed or damaged, he said, even families in houses and apartments are exposed to the weather, and Israel keeps rejecting shipments containing timber and emergency shelter kits. As an occupying power, Abdu argued, Israel is required under the Fourth Geneva Convention to let essential supplies reach civilians.

Others describe nights that simply could not be survived indoors. Jihad Dawwas, 51, sheltered in a camp where wind tore away surrounding tents and water poured in; his children slept standing up after rain soaked their mattresses and the plastic sheeting, and by morning some had fallen ill from the cold. He is caring for seven of his own children and three orphaned children of his brother, and bought his family's tent with his own money. Om Hani Hamouda, displaced from Beit Lahiya and sheltering in al-Zawayda, said her family has been displaced around 15 times during the war, and that replacing her worn-out tent with a caravan is now a dream. She asked for a dignified life, adding that a simple caravan would be better. Nearly two years after the war began on October 7, 2023, more than 90 percent of Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced, many of them repeatedly.