For tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza, the coming winter is not a season of warmth, but a looming catastrophe. As the genocide enters its third year, families sheltering in overcrowded camps face their third rainy season without proper protection, their tents torn, soaked, and insufficient. Many live under plastic sheeting or in open air, carrying with them only fragments of homes destroyed by relentless bombardment.

Displacement has become a permanent condition. In camps across central Gaza, families are crammed into spaces designed for a fraction of their current numbers. With winter approaching, fears mount of flooding, disease, and worsening humanitarian collapse. Mothers speak of nights sleeping on bare ground, children coughing through cold and rain, and the inability to keep families safe without adequate shelter or clothing. “When the rain comes, we will drown in this tent,” says one mother who fled after her home was destroyed.

Municipal leaders warn of disaster. Hundreds of thousands now live in worn-out tents with no replacements, while fuel shortages have shut down wells and crippled basic sanitation. Streets overflow with sewage, and waste piles grow unchecked, fuelling the risk of disease outbreaks. With no end to displacement in sight, what lies ahead is not merely another season but a deepening of a humanitarian catastrophe, a cycle of uprooting and suffering designed to erase an entire people’s future.