Heavy overnight rain flooded tents across Gaza’s displacement camps, soaking mattresses, blankets and personal belongings. Officials say they received “hundreds of pleas for help” while resources remain insufficient, and some shelter centres reported water above 10 cm (3.94 in). Aid groups warn that worn-out tents are collapsing as hundreds of thousands remain displaced; the UN says more than 1.4 million people need emergency shelter and over 320,000 housing units have been damaged.
Heavy Rain Floods Gaza Displacement Camps, Soaking Tents and Straining Aid Efforts
Heavy overnight rain flooded tents across Gaza’s displacement camps, soaking mattresses, blankets and personal belongings. Officials say they received “hundreds of pleas for help” while resources remain insufficient, and some shelter centres reported water above 10 cm (3.94 in). Aid groups warn that worn-out tents are collapsing as hundreds of thousands remain displaced; the UN says more than 1.4 million people need emergency shelter and over 320,000 housing units have been damaged.
10:57 PM, 11/14/2025Conflict
Heavy rain inundates tents across Gaza’s displacement camps
Displaced Palestinians across Gaza woke on Friday to several inches of water inside their tents after an overnight downpour left shelters and most personal belongings soaked with no way to dry them.
“We have received hundreds of pleas for help,” Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza Civil Defense, told reporters.
“Resources are nonexistent.”
Basal said some shelter centres reported water levels above 10 centimetres (3.94 inches), leaving mattresses and blankets saturated. Residents and aid workers described many tents as worn and collapsing under the weight of the rain.
Displaced families in Gaza City told CNN that shelters that have endured years of conflict and repeated displacement are frayed and unable to withstand seasonal storms. “We were flooded by the rain, me and my little children,” Raed Al-Alayan said. “Our tents were flooded. There is no roof to protect us from the rain.”
The rain continued into the morning as men and women desperately mopped and bailed water that kept returning to their shelters. “We have been awake since 2:30 a.m. because of the rain. Everything is soaked; the mattresses and the blankets,” Abdulbasset Abulhadi told CNN.
One woman guided reporters through her family’s soaked shelter where she said as many as 20 children, including newborns, were sheltering; she began to cry describing the situation. “Where should we go? My son who was killed built these tents for us. What am I supposed to do now?”
Mai Elawawda, Communications Officer in Gaza for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), described Friday as “one of the hardest days in Gaza since the ceasefire.” She said many families are living in worn-out tents that have endured years of attacks and displacement, and that these makeshift shelters are failing with the first signs of winter.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that more than 1.4 million people in Gaza need emergency shelter items and that over 320,000 housing units have been damaged by Israeli military attacks. Aid organisations say only a fraction of required shelter assistance has been allowed into Gaza.
One displaced resident told reporters he had not received a single tarp during the war. “Most of our bedding was soaked. We drowned in just five minutes of rain,” Abu Mohammad Abaeeb said.
CNN has contacted Israeli authorities for comment on the volume of aid permitted into Gaza and on allegations from relief groups that humanitarian assistance continues to be restricted.
Humanitarian implications
Even seasonal rainfall can have devastating consequences when hundreds of thousands of people lack permanent housing and basic supplies. Saturated bedding and ruined belongings increase health risks, especially for children, the elderly and newborns sheltering in crowded conditions.
Sources: CNN reporting, Gaza Civil Defense, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), United Nations OCHA.