Heavy rain and freezing temperatures have worsened Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, killing at least 20 people in building collapses since the storms began and leaving families to shelter in flooded tents and damaged ruins. Two people — including a seven-year-old — died on Sunday when a wall gave way. UNRWA says aid is not arriving at the scale required and has urged greater access. Humanitarian teams warn that, without rapid winterized assistance, conditions will continue to deteriorate.
Harsh Winter Devastates Gaza: 20 Killed In Collapses, Displaced Families Flooded
A displaced Palestinian man walks in front of his tent following heavy rains in Gaza City on Saturday. - Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Heavy rain and plunging temperatures battered the Gaza Strip over the weekend, compounding an already dire humanitarian crisis as people shelter in ruined buildings and waterlogged tents.
On Sunday, Gaza’s Civil Defense reported two fatalities — including a seven-year-old child — after a wall collapsed amid freezing conditions. The Hamas-run Government Media Office (GMO) said in a statement that 20 people have been killed when homes and buildings collapsed on those seeking refuge since the storms began, and that at least 49 structures have fallen due to the weather.
Shelters at Risk
Many displaced families remain in flimsy, soaked tents or in partially destroyed buildings that are highly vulnerable to collapse. Strong winds and heavy downpours have ripped tents apart and toppled trees onto shelters. In Deir al-Balah, a displaced man described how a fallen tree crushed his tent.
Displaced Palestinians, staying in makeshift tents, struggle to survive in water-logged tents as rain and severe storms affect the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. - Tariq Mohammad/APAImages/Shutterstock
“This is the second tree that has fallen on us because of the wind. Where is the world for us, where are human rights? We are sitting here in death. God protected us; otherwise, everyone here would have been martyred,”
— Eyad Abu Jdeyan, displaced resident, quoted to CNN
Emergency Services and Local Response
Ahmed Radwan of Gaza’s Civil Defense said rescue teams are stretched thin and described the situation as a new “catastrophic” emergency layered on top of long-standing destruction across the enclave. In Khan Younis, residents awoke to tents filled with standing water after overnight rainfall; Radwan warned that some areas are effectively uninhabitable even for livestock.
Humanitarian Access and International Response
The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, warned that aid supplies are not entering Gaza at the scale required. He urged greater access, saying the agency could substantially increase support if shipments and permissions were allowed to flow.
“More rain. More human misery, despair & death. Harsh winter weather is compounding more than two years of suffering. People in Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents & among ruins,”
— Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General (on X)
The humanitarian emergency has unfolded amid international diplomacy: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had planned a visit to Mar-a-Lago for talks with Donald Trump, a trip observers say is part of broader efforts to advance discussions over Gaza. Aid groups warn that without rapid, scaled-up humanitarian access and winterized shelter, more lives will be put at risk.
What remains clear: urgent deliveries of tents, winterized shelter materials, blankets, clean water and medical supplies are needed now to reduce further loss of life and suffering.
