“We have issued an urgent distress call to the international community and humanitarian organisations to intervene immediately to save hundreds of thousands of displaced people from the flooding of their tents.”
“We cannot face the consequences of this storm on our own.”
Um Muhammad al-Hersh, 45, who lives with her family in a tent in western Gaza, told AFP: “We were not able to save the mattresses, and all the clothes were soaked. Our suffering is repeated every winter.”
Maryam Odeh, 34, who lives with her children in Deir el-Balah, said, “We no longer know how to protect our children. My children ask me where we will sleep tonight, and I have no answer”.
For his part, Khaled al-Najjar, 41, said, “We fear for our children not only from the flooding of the tents, but also from the cold and the widespread diseases”.
‘Catastrophe’
A coalition of Palestinian civil society organisations warned in a statement of “the catastrophe that has come to threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of residents”, pointing to the risk of the spread of diseases and epidemics.
The coalition, which includes dozens of local institutions and organisations, called for “pressure on Israel to allow the entry of humanitarian aid without restrictions”.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority on Sunday called on the international community to take immediate action, saying that Israel’s war in Gaza had exacerbated dire living conditions there, according to Palestinian official news agency WAFA.
A fragile ceasefire came into effect on October 10, 2025, after two years of war that erupted following the unprecedented attack carried out by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Despite the ceasefire agreement reached with Egyptian, Qatari and American mediation, the Israeli army continues airstrikes and ground operations on an almost daily basis.
Mustafa Qazzaat, a member of the Gaza city council and an official in the Strip’s emergency committee, said Israel has not allowed prefabricated homes to shelter the displaced in Gaza since the truce was announced, and has only permitted the entry of limited numbers of tents.
Qazzaat told AFP on Saturday that Gaza “needs 200,000 prefabricated homes urgently, in addition to the entry of heavy machinery to remove the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings, open main roads, and urgently provide electricity and heating”.
– AFP
