Heavy rains and strong winds have battered the Gaza Strip since late Friday, flooding tens of thousands of makeshift tents and collapsing dozens of walls, according to Gaza's Government Media Office. The storm has left large numbers of displaced Palestinians without adequate shelter as conditions across the territory deteriorate.
Reporting from Gaza City in the north of the strip on Sunday, Al Jazeera correspondent Ibrahim al-Khalili said the fragile tents housing many displaced families offer little protection from harsh weather. "The latest storm exposed just how fragile the protection is. In just a few hours, heavy rains and strong winds tore through shelters families had spent days trying to reinforce," he said, describing soaked mattresses, pillows and clothing left behind by the floodwaters.
Al-Khalili reported that nearly 400,000 displaced Palestinians are sheltering in locations considered highly vulnerable to further flooding. The Government Media Office said about 70,000 tents were inundated and estimated the storm's damage at roughly $3 million.
The Gaza Civil Defence said it received at least 1,500 emergency calls during the storm. The agency warned that more than 2,000 buildings are at risk of collapse and said at least 300,000 tents are needed to adequately shelter displaced people affected by the weather.
In Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera's Ashraf Abu Amra reported that displaced families whose shelters were flooded had received no food aid since early Saturday. The flooding has compounded an already severe humanitarian crisis, as Israel maintains tight restrictions on the entry of aid supplies into the territory.
Jonathan Veitch, UNICEF's special representative in Palestine, said most people in Gaza are living in "terrible conditions" and appealed for increased funding to deliver urgently needed assistance. Relief organizations say they have struggled for years to bring aid and shelter materials into the strip.
The war, which began on October 7, 2023, after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, has devastated homes and infrastructure across Gaza. Continuing restrictions on aid, shelter supplies and reconstruction materials have hampered relief and recovery efforts, according to the report.
More than 74,640 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the source report. Since a ceasefire took effect in October 2025, at least 1,610 Palestinians have been killed.
