Displaced families in Gaza are facing a fourth winter in tents and makeshift shelters, with damaged tarpaulins, inadequate drainage and shortages of basic materials leaving them exposed to wind, rain and flooding.
Mohammed al-Jamal, 60, and his sons have been trying to secure their worn-out tent at a displacement camp on the beach in western Gaza City as a storm approaches. The family cannot afford a replacement tarpaulin, which costs between 120 and 150 shekels (£37-£47) in local markets.
Instead, they have patched the shelter and hope it will withstand the weather.
“We are trying to prepare as much as we can to protect ourselves from the water and the wind,” Mr al-Jamal said. “We follow the weather reports, and whenever there is a warning of a storm, we start preparing. But once the storm comes, everything gets torn apart, and we have to start all over again. It is continuous suffering throughout the winter.”
Temperatures can fall to 7C during the winter and feel colder in strong coastal winds and rain. Tents offer little protection, while flooding puts bedding, clothing and other belongings at risk.
Gaza winter shelter crisis
Mr al-Jamal, originally from Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood, has been displaced several times since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023. About 30 members of his extended family are living in the camp.
“We are just trying to adapt to what we have. This is what is available to us. We need everything,” he said.
He said his family had repeatedly heard that shelter materials and caravans would be allowed into Gaza, but that none had arrived for them. He described the announcements as “false promises and lies”.
“Our demand is to have our lives back the way they were before,” he said.
More than 74,500 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to figures cited in the source material, while more than 80 per cent of buildings have been destroyed or damaged. About 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are living in tents or makeshift shelters, many having been forced to move repeatedly when Israeli assaults begin on their homes or camps.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says at least 294,250 families need winter shelter assistance. Existing supplies provide only partial help to about 52,000 families, or roughly 18 per cent of those in need.
A Shelter Cluster survey found that more than 65 per cent of displaced households were living in tents or makeshift shelters, with more than half of those structures in poor or very poor condition.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said on October 5 that at least 500 truckloads of shelter materials were awaiting entry or procurement. At the current rate, it said, the supplies could take more than seven months to enter Gaza. They include tents, tarpaulins, ropes and other materials needed to repair shelters.
For Khitam Salman, 39, the prospect of another winter brings memories of repeated damage to her family’s tents. Originally from Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, she has been displaced several times and now lives near the beach.
“Every time there is a storm, we put up the tarpaulins and tie them down, only to have to do it all over again,” she said. “With every low-pressure system, it is the same.”
One of the family’s tents has collapsed four times while they were inside, she said. It has been torn by the weather, allowing sand to enter and leaving the family exposed to rain and wind.
“We need a tarpaulin for this tent, another for the other one, and one for the room where we keep our belongings,” Mrs Salman said. “But we don’t have the means. We have done what we can.”
Her husband works in the health sector but receives his salary only once every three months, she said. The money is not enough to meet the family’s needs.
Last winter, after their tent collapsed and their possessions were soaked, Mrs Salman said she became so overwhelmed that she walked to the sea and sat there for hours.
“I’m worried about this winter … that the whole nightmare will repeat itself all over again,” she said.
Flood risks in Gaza camps
Damaged roads, drainage and sewage systems are adding to the risk of rainwater mixing with wastewater and flooding displacement camps.
Husni Muhanna, a spokesperson for Gaza Municipality, said more than 85 per cent of the city’s infrastructure had been damaged and that its rainwater drainage system was operating at about 20 per cent of its previous capacity.
Rubble, damaged drainage networks and shortages of heavy machinery, fuel and maintenance materials are hampering preparations for winter, Mr Muhanna said. The municipality has started emergency cleaning and maintenance work but remains constrained by a lack of resources.
Yosra Mesleh, 45, is preparing for her second winter in a tent after her home in Gaza City’s Nassr neighbourhood was destroyed.
She said rainwater had entered the family’s tent last winter and soaked their bedding, leaving them with nowhere dry to sit, cook or eat while they waited for their possessions to dry.
“The place where we are living is not healthy or safe. It is not suitable for summer or winter,” she said.
Her husband has been out of work since the beginning of the war, while her son is struggling to meet his own expenses. The family needs tents, tarpaulins, cooking utensils and a reliable supply of cooking gas, she said.
“We are not asking for towers or anything extravagant,” Mrs Mesleh said. “We are asking for tarpaulins and tents, for a dignified life.”
