Relentless winter rain has turned displacement camps across Gaza into pools of cold, stagnant water, leaving families who have already lost everything struggling to endure yet another blow. Overnight downpours flooded hundreds of fragile tents, destroying what little comfort people had managed to salvage after two years of genocidal war that levelled entire neighbourhoods and forced families into constant movement.

Many awoke to find their shelters soaked through, with water rising around their feet and seeping into the thin mattresses that had served as beds. Parents described holding their children upright through the night, trying in vain to keep them dry as the rain poured in from every angle. With no roofs strong enough to withstand the weather and no tools to push back the water, people could only watch as their belongings collapsed into the mud. Several said they had not been able to dry a single item and no longer knew how to shield their families from the cold.

Across the camps, tents gave way under the pressure of the rain, their worn fabric and fragile poles weakened by months of repeated displacement. Mothers walked through pools of water inside their shelters, holding newborns close for warmth while older children stood shivering beside them. One woman broke down as she pointed to the tent her late son had once assembled for them, saying she no longer knew where she could possibly go when even this final shelter had failed. Others described being awake since before dawn, listening to their bedding fill with water until there was nowhere dry left to sit.

With the devastation of past months leaving roads blocked, equipment shattered and infrastructure in ruins, people said they had no hope of drying their belongings or repairing their shelters. Many spoke of asking for help but receiving nothing, not even a tarp, since the beginning of the war. Meanwhile, thousands of essential items remain stuck outside the territory, prevented from reaching families who now face winter with almost no protection. As storms continue to sweep the enclave, displaced people fear that the flooding is only the beginning of a far harsher season, one they must confront with little aid, little shelter and nowhere left to turn.