Floods swamp homeless Palestinians’ tents in Gaza as winter looms

Heavy rain is causing flooding in the Gaza Strip, swamping the tents of thousands of homeless Palestinians facing the prospect of harsh winter storms without sturdy shelter.

The large majority of Gaza’s 2 million people were forced from their homes during Israel’s two-year ground and air war in the small, crowded enclave triggered by Hamas’s October 2023 attack, with many now living in tents and other rudimentary shelters.

A ceasefire has broadly held since mid-October but the war demolished much of heavily built-up Gaza, including basic infrastructure, leaving grim living conditions for most people.

“This suffering, this rain – and the low-pressure weather systems haven’t even started yet. It’s only the beginning of winter, and we’re already flooded and humiliated,” Um Ahmed Aowdah says outside her tent as rain pelted down on Tuesday. “We haven’t received new tents or tarps. Our tarp is two years old and our tent is two years old – they’re completely worn out.”

Amjad Al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGOs Network, says there was an urgent need for at least 300,000 new tents to house the roughly 1.5 million people still displaced from their homes.

The Palestinian Civil Defense Service says thousands of tents housing displaced families had been inundated by rainwater or damaged by torrential rainstorms over the past week.

Some tents completely washed away as floodwaters rose 40 to 50 centimeters (15-20 inches) above ground level in some areas of the coastal enclave, while a field hospital had to suspend operations due to flooding, medics and witnesses say.