‘Everything is soaked’: Rain floods Gaza tents, amid efforts to ramp up aid

Children and families in Gaza scooped muddy water from their tents on Tuesday, trying to protect the few belongings that remain after two years of war.

Winter’s heavy rains have left displaced Palestinians splashing in water that reaches their ankles, and blaming both Israel and Hamas for the misery that remains despite a ceasefire.

“All tents were destroyed,” said Assmaa Fayad in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, whose shelter was damaged in Tuesday’s latest downpour. “Where is Hamas? Where are the people to see this rain and how our children are drowning?”

A Hamas spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, lashed out in a message on Telegram: “All the world’s efforts to alleviate the disaster have failed because of the Israeli siege.”

Aid organizations worry that the rainy winter months will make the stark situation worse, with ongoing shortages of humanitarian supplies. They are scrambling to mitigate the flooding and restore infrastructure devastated by the fighting.

Nearly all of Gaza’s over 2 million people were forced from their homes during the war. Most have been living in tents or shelters, some of them built over destroyed homes, with no proper sewage facilities. For toilets, they depend on cesspits dug near tents that overflow in heavy rainfall.

Reham al-Hilu was among those assessing the damage in Deir al-Balah, one of the areas hardest hit by the rains. Her wood and metal shelter collapsed overnight, and she said her head was injured.

“Rainwater flooded the mattresses,” she said. “As you can see, everything is soaked — the clothes, everything — and my children are all soaked.”

Roadways in Deir al-Balah turned into shallow rivers of murky water. One man waded across carrying a young daughter in each arm. Some families knelt on the ground, trying to soak up the water with pieces of cloth.

The United Nations humanitarian office last week said the downpours have damaged at least 13,000 tents like al-Hilu’s, and “destroyed what little shelter and belongings thousands of Palestinians in Gaza had left.”

The office said aid organizations had begun preparing for winter in October, when the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect, transporting materials like winterized tents into Gaza.

But the office said efforts have been hampered by the slow entry of aid. It said deliveries into the territory continue to be “severely constrained by Israeli authorities’ restrictions on the entry of shelter supplies.”

The Israeli Defense Ministry body responsible for the entry of aid, COGAT, has said it is working to bring in more winter supplies. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Despite the challenges, aid groups were able to distribute over 3,600 tents, 129,000 tarpaulins and 87,000 blankets earlier this month, the UN office said.

While daily fighting has stopped in Gaza, there have been regular bouts of violence, in which frequent attacks on Israeli troops in areas controlled by Israel under the ceasefire have prompted Israel to strike Hamas targets in the rest of the Strip in response.

The war began on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

The US-brokered truce secured the return of all living hostages still in Gaza and mandated the return of the others’ remains, though terror groups were still holding a few last hostages’ bodies, of which they claim not to know the whereabouts. In return for the hostages released during three ceasefire deals, Israel has released thousands of Palestinian security prisoners.

The ceasefire was envisioned by the US as the first stage of a larger peace plan, which would see Hamas disarmed and Gaza demilitarized. The terror group has refused to give up its weapons.