Winter rain lashed the Gaza Strip over the weekend, flooding camps with ankle-deep puddles as Palestinians displaced by two years of war attempted to stay dry in tents frayed by months of use.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled for an expected meeting on Monday with US President Donald Trump in Florida about the second phase of the ceasefire. The first phase that took effect on Oct. 10 was meant to bring a surge in humanitarian aid for Gaza, including shelter.
Netanyahu made no public statement as he departed.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, blankets and mattresses were soaked and clay ovens meant for cooking were swamped. Children wearing flip-flops and light clothing waded through puddles as some people used shovels to try to push water out of tents.
“We drowned last night,” said Majdoleen Tarabein, who was displaced from Rafah in southern Gaza. “Puddles formed, and there was a bad smell. The tent flew away. We don’t know what to do or where to go.”
She showed blankets and other items in the tent soaked and covered in mud as she and family members tried to wring them dry by hand.
“When we woke up in the morning, we found that the water had entered the tent,” said Eman Abu Riziq, also displaced in Khan Younis. “These are the mattresses – they are all completely soaked.” She said her family is still reeling from her husband’s recent death, and is further drained by the constant struggle to stay dry.
At least 12 people, including a 2-week-old infant, have died since Dec. 13 from hypothermia or weather-related collapses of war-damaged homes, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government.
Emergency workers have warned people not to stay in damaged buildings because they could collapse. But with much of the territory in rubble, there are few places to escape the rain. The United Nations in July estimated that almost 80% of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged.
Since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began, 414 people have been killed and 1,142 wounded in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry. The overall Palestinian death toll from the war is at least 71,266. The ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its count, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community.
Aid deliveries into Gaza are falling far short of the amount called for under the US-brokered ceasefire, according to aid organizations and an Associated Press analysis of the Israeli military’s figures.
The Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid said in the past week that 4,200 trucks with aid entered Gaza, plus eight garbage trucks to assist with sanitation, as well as tents and winter clothing. It refused to elaborate on the number of tents; aid groups have said the need far outstrips the number that have entered.
Since the ceasefire began, approximately 72,000 tents and 403,000 tarps have entered, according to the Shelter Cluster, an international coalition of aid providers led by the Norwegian Refugee Council.
“Harsh winter weather is compounding more than two years of suffering. People in Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents and among ruins. There is nothing inevitable about this. Aid supplies are not being allowed in at the scale required,” Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the top UN group overseeing aid in Gaza, wrote on social media.
Though the ceasefire agreement has mostly held, its progress has slowed.