Gaza (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Local authorities in Gaza reported on Saturday that heavy rains resulting from a depression hitting the devastated Strip flooded tens of thousands of tents for displaced people, who were left homeless.

Published on: 07/11/2026 - 15:27

The Hamas-run Government Information Office said in a statement that during the last 12 hours, about “seventy thousand tents housing tens of thousands of displaced people sank on the first day of the low weather and rain,” also noting “the collapse of dozens of walls and cracked ceilings, causing injuries, including serious cases,” in various areas of the Strip.

Since the early hours of dawn, hundreds of displaced families were seen fleeing camps in many areas in Gaza City and in the central and northern Gaza Strip after they were flooded with rainwater.

Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told Agence France-Presse that his crews “received more than one thousand five hundred reports during the night from citizens requesting urgent assistance after their tents sank,” explaining that the Civil Defense “is working without any equipment or capabilities.”

He added, "We sent an urgent distress call to the international community and humanitarian organizations to intervene urgently to save hundreds of thousands of displaced people from drowning in their tents."

He continued, "We cannot face the repercussions of this low alone."

Umm Muhammad al-Harash (45 years old), who lives with her family in a tent west of Gaza, told AFP, “We were unable to save the mattress, and all the clothes drowned. Our suffering is repeated every winter.”

Maryam Odeh (34 years old), who lives with her children in Deir al-Balah, said, “We no longer know how to protect our children. My children ask me where we will sleep tonight, and I cannot find an answer.”

For his part, Khaled Al-Najjar (41 years old) said, “We fear for our children, not only from the sinking of the tents, but also from the cold and widespread diseases.”

The coalition of Palestinian civil society organizations warned in a statement of “the catastrophe that now threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens of the Gaza Strip,” noting the danger of the spread of diseases and epidemics.

The coalition, which includes dozens of local institutions and organizations, called for "pressure on Israel to bring in humanitarian aid without restrictions."

The Gaza Strip is witnessing a fragile ceasefire that entered into force on October 10, 2025, after two years of war that broke out following the unprecedented attack launched by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Despite the agreement on a ceasefire that was reached with Egyptian, Qatari and American mediation, the Israeli army continues its air strikes and military operations on the ground on an almost daily basis.

A member of the Gaza Municipal Council and an official in the emergency committee in the Strip, Mustafa Qazaat, reminded that since the announcement of the truce, Israel has not allowed the entry of caravans (prefabricated homes) to shelter the displaced, and has permitted the entry of limited numbers of tents.

Qazat told AFP on Saturday that the sector "urgently needs two hundred thousand caravans, in addition to bringing in heavy equipment to remove the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings, open the main streets, and provide electricity and heating urgently."

© 2026 AFP

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