GAZA CITY — The rain has begun to fall across the war-wrecked Gaza Strip, accompanying Israel’s rockets that have been filling the sky for a year.
The rainfall is coming as about two million Palestinians in Gaza are displaced — mostly multiple times — and spend their days and nights in the open in worn out tents lined along the strip’s Mediterranean coast.
The rain late last month flooded many tents where displaced people are sheltering, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
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“Plastic and fabric are not enough to protect people against the rain and the cold,” the agency wrote on the X platform, attaching a video showing the impact of heavy rainfall on the tents.
“In a year, we were displaced five times,” said Sami Awda, a 54-year-old Palestinian father of five.
The man’s family was forced to flee his home in northern Gaza in the first months of the war. He now shelters in the central town of Deir al-Balah.
He lives in a tent along with three of his children; the other two are married and live with their children in two separate tents nearby. All tents are located close to the shore, making it more vulnerable to high waves.
Awda said that waves arrived less than two meters (6.5 feet) from his family’s tents.
“This is the situation as we are still in the beginning of the rainy season,” he said. “At any time we could find the seawater coming towards us and flooding the tent.”
50 vulnerable areas
Hundreds of tents are piled up on the beach stretching from Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, through the town of Zuwayda, Deir al-Balah, Khan Yunis, and even the northwestern outskirts of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip — an area designated by the Israeli military to host displaced people.
Samaher Abdel-Wahed’s tent on the western side of Khan Younis was flooded in the late September rainfall. The 42-year-old woman was displaced seven times since she was forced to flee her home in northern Gaza last year.
“We’ve been flooded; our sleeping mats and all our belongings were flooded with polluted water,” she said,” so where can we go!?”
Turning cold
The United Nations designated more than 50 sites and shelters as the most vulnerable areas for the floods and rainfall across Gaza.
Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s communications director, urged for more shelters and supplies to help displaced people in the winter.
“With the rain and the drop in temperatures, people are likely to get sick, especially children who are more susceptible to colds and flu,” Touma told Reuters news agency.
Hampered aid efforts
UNRWA says UN agencies and aid groups have faced numerous challenges to bring in supplies, including plastic sheets, tents, mattresses, mats, blankets and other basic materials. The closure of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt has made aid efforts more challenging.
Israel closed the crossing as part of its offensive on Rafah in May, adding to the displaced people’s sufferings.
For weeks, no tents entered southern and central Gaza, according to aid workers. Only small amounts of food, including flour and canned food, were allowed into the two areas.
“There are dozens of trucks loaded with tents and hygiene products at the Kerem Shalom crossing, and the occupation army has not allowed them to enter yet,” said the worker, requesting anonymity.
Aid groups also are concerned about looting aid trucks amid the chaos and insecurity in the strip which further hamper the aid delivery to displaced people.
