‘We do not want to die from the cold’: Gaza families struggle as rain floods shelters

Families in Gaza are desperately trying to endure the winter as rain and flooding wreak havoc on shelters, with many warning they fear dying from the cold. Tarpaulins covering makeshift homes are being destroyed by the elements, leaving residents with no safe place to go.

Off Mansour al-Sakni, a 33-year-old Gazan living in al-Tuffah neighbourhood, watched as rainwater poured into his shelter earlier this month. The family had just replaced their tarpaulins two weeks ago, spending two water barrels to do so. But the new canopy offered little protection when heavy rain began. "We woke up and found ourselves surrounded by water.

The children were crying. I did not know what to do, and I started crying too," Sakni said. His 10-year-old daughter Jana, who has poor eyesight and needs glasses, is especially vulnerable in the cold.

The Civil Defence agency in Gaza says it received about 1,500 distress calls in just 10 hours after the rain began on Saturday. Some shelters were completely flooded, with water levels rising 30 to 40 centimeters in places. Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said many shelters have now been abandoned, with residents forced to flee into the unknown.

For Nasmeh al-Khatib, a 26-year-old mother of a two-year-old, the storm brought back painful memories of her husband's death during a displacement in Gaza City in 2024. She and her daughter are now sharing a partially destroyed home with five other families. While they've covered the roof with tarpaulins, every rainfall floods their ground floor living space.