By Taghreed Saadeh
Gaza has turned into a disaster zone in every sense of the word. The devastating war that left thousands of victims and millions of tons of rubble was not enough, nor was the blockade that stripped people of the basics of life. Then winter came, exposing the depth of an open human wound.
In a small strip where more than one and a half million displaced people are trying to survive, heavy rain has doubled the tragedy. It has turned shelter camps into pools of mud and swept away fragile tents that were set up hastily on unprepared land unable to hold such a massive population.
Humanitarian organizations estimate that nearly 300,000 additional tents are needed to shelter the rising number of displaced families. Yet only a few thousand tents have arrived in recent weeks, far too few to meet even a small part of the needs. At the same time, about 800,000 people are living in areas threatened by flooding, and many of these sites were already submerged, causing tents to collapse and water to rush inside makeshift shelters.
During the latest storm, confirmed deaths were reported from cold and from collapsing homes. Local medical and media sources documented around 12 deaths in less than 24 hours. Among the victims was an infant who drowned inside a flooded tent, and two young girls who died from the freezing cold in tents that offered no protection from the rain. Other deaths were caused by the collapse of damaged homes where displaced families had taken refuge; this included five people killed when a house collapsed in Beit Lahia and two others crushed when a wall fell onto tents in Gaza. These incidents show how low temperatures, the lack of safe shelter, and the collapse of war-damaged structures under heavy rain have become direct causes of repeated deaths during every severe weather wave in a besieged area lacking the most basic means of protection.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels, noting that more than 80% of residential and public buildings have been destroyed or severely damaged by ongoing Israeli airstrikes, which continue to kill civilians and devastate essential infrastructure.
Guterres expressed deep concern about the fragile security situation and the continued violence threatening the ceasefire agreement. He added that the slight improvement in food entry has not improved people’s living conditions, as basic sources of protein remain out of reach for most families. As winter arrives, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are living in desperate conditions in tents lacking all essentials, while Israel continues to block the entry of mobile homes and vital materials needed to prepare shelters, despite the agreement requiring 600 aid trucks a day, with only about 200 allowed in.
These conditions leave people under constant threat of slow death. With each passing day, it becomes clear that Gaza is not facing a single humanitarian crisis, but rather a layered catastrophe that combines war, blockade, hunger, illness, and flooding, leaving its shattered population confronting a cycle of suffering that never stops.
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