Rain Floods Gaza Camps as Bomb-Damaged Buildings Threaten to Collapse

Heavy rain and strong winds have flooded camps and cities across Gaza over the past several days, deepening the misery of Palestinians who are spending a fourth winter outside their homes since Israel's war on the enclave began in October 2023.

Water levels rose by 30 to 40 centimetres at several camps during Saturday's rain, and Gaza's civil defence agency received hundreds of calls for help. At al-Mina camp in northern Gaza, where about 1,700 Palestinian families live, rainwater turned the ground into pools of mud.

Rana Adnan Hmeida, 29, said her family was awake from midnight as water seeped into their tent and soaked their bedding, blankets and clothes. "Since midnight, we have been sitting awake. Water came into our tent, and the bedding, blankets and everything else got soaked," she told Al Jazeera, describing how she found her children shivering in the morning, her two-month-old baby freezing. "What am I supposed to do? Hold my children or try to stop the water?"

Her husband, Sameh Hmeida, 30, said the family's tent is especially exposed because it sits close to the sea and has no tarpaulins or insulating material to keep out the storm. With all their clothes wet, the family had to ask neighbours for help drying them.

Elsewhere in the camp, Raed Abu Amsha, 40, said his tent collapsed on top of his family during the storm, soaking the clothes and blankets of the nine children in his care, four of them from his late brother. "This storm lasted only two hours, and look what it did to us. We need tents, tarpaulins and anything that can protect our children," he said.

In Nuseirat, a decades-old camp in central Gaza with permanent structures, the rain poses a different danger to families sheltering in buildings damaged by Israeli bombardments. Nasser al-Hajj, 54, lives in a tower block hit in an Israeli strike in September 2025. Debris from upper floors fell onto his home, leaving a large hole in the ceiling that lets in water every time it rains. Although the ceiling has been reinforced with support beams, an engineer has warned him the apartment is dangerous and that more rubble could fall if bad weather returns.

During the latest storm, al-Hajj moved his children to a neighbour's home and waited for debris to stop falling from the roof. Two of his children, who have autism, sleep in the tower block's guard room away from the damaged area. "I am forced to live somewhere that could collapse over our heads at any moment. But where am I supposed to go? Rent is expensive, and a tent is not safe either," he said.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, about 950,000 displaced people in Gaza are living in areas exposed to flooding, with more than 400,000 in locations considered at high risk. About 44,000 Palestinians are living in structurally unsafe buildings, and more than 4,000 buildings across the territory are estimated to require full or partial demolition because of damage from Israeli air strikes. About 294,250 families need shelter assistance ahead of winter, but available supplies cover only 18 percent of their needs.

The Gaza Municipality is also struggling to cope. About 15 kilometres of rainwater drainage lines and 212 kilometres of sewage networks have been damaged, while eight pumping stations and three main stormwater collection basins are out of service. Spokesperson Hosni Muhanna said the remaining system can handle no more than 20 percent of rainwater under the best of circumstances, and that shortages of fuel, equipment and spare parts limit repair efforts. More than 2,000 buildings in Gaza City alone are at risk of collapse, he said, and the volume of rubble in the city has exceeded 25 million tonnes.

Emergency committees in the camps face similar shortages. Adli Awad, an official with the emergency committee in Nuseirat refugee camp, said demand far exceeds available stocks. "We are trying to provide as many tents and tarpaulins as possible. We are also helping families dig channels to divert rainwater away from tents and reduce flooding," he said.