Gaza faces new crisis as Storm Byron brings heavy rain and flooding

The live blog has now ended and will be back tomorrow at 9am GMT. You can read more of The New Arab's coverage of Israel's war on Gaza here.

The World Health Organisation has warned that disease in Gaza may be spreading undetected because of collapse of Gaza's surveillance and laboratory systems, according to Teresa Zakaria, unit head for humanitarian and disaster action.

She was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera that Gaza's living conditions are so severe that "we can't even describe it anymore."

The chief of the UN's agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has said that Storm Bryon, which is currently hitting Gaza, has put its people in "another layer of misery".

"More hardship for displaced families living in makeshift shelters with rain bringing floods, damage and additional health threats," he said in a post on X.

"UNRWA teams - displaced themselves - continue working to support people wherever they can. They are pumping away sewage & floodwater, clearing garbage, distributing tarpaulins, winter clothes & blankets, & providing medical care," he added.

Israel has agreed to pay for the removal of Gaza's rubble following US demands on the issue, alongside being responsible for the operation, according to Israeli outlet Ynet.

The report said that the removal is expected to cost one billion shekels.

The White House has said that planning is underway for a move to phase two of Gaza's ceasefire, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying, "quiet planning" is underway "behind the scenes", adding that the Trump administration would make announcements "at the appropriate time."

Eleven Israeli ministers, including eight from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party, urged the defence minister Thursday to authorise a flag-raising ceremony in the Gaza Strip on the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

In a letter published by the ultranationalist pro-settlement movement Nachala, which kickstarted the initiative, they said "it is time to proudly affirm that Gaza is part of the Land of Israel, belongs exclusively to the Jewish people, and must therefore immediately become part of the State of Israel".

"We request an authorisation for this event, which is essentially intended to hoist the Israeli flag over the ruins of the town of Nissanit," the letter reads, referring to a former Israeli settlement in the northern Gaza Strip dismantled during Israel's withdrawal from the territory in 2005.

Among the letter's signatories were far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir as well as eight ministers from Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, including Transport Minister Miri Regev, a close Netanyahu ally.

The letter was also signed by 21 members of the Knesset - out of the parliament's 120 lawmakers - from Ben Gvir's Jewish Power party and Likud, who are not part of Netanyahu's cabinet like the ministers.

Israel said Thursday that a report by Amnesty International accusing Hamas and other armed groups of crimes against humanity during and after their 7 October 2023 attack did not reflect the full extent of the crimes.

"It took Amnesty International more than two years to address Hamas's heinous crimes, and even now its report falls far short of reflecting the full scope of Hamas's horrific atrocities," foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein wrote on X, accusing the rights group of being a "biased organisation".

Israeli strikes on Iran earlier this year dealt much less damage to the country's ballistic missile capabilities, according to a report from al-Monitor, which said that intelligence chief Major General Shlomi Binder shared the information to US Ambassador Mike Waltz earlier this week.

Israel believes Iran possesses 2,000 ballistic missiles, a similar amount to what it had when the 11-day war began in June.

"THis is a threat that Israel will not be able to accept for long, and we must coordiante with the Americans the red lines and actions we will take in the future, perhaps even in the near future," a source told the outlet.

Israel and the United States have completed a five-day joint naval exercise off the coast of Haifa in the Mediterranean and in the Red Sea, the Israeli military announced.

The drill, named Intrinsic Defender, involved the Israeli Navy and the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. According to the statement, the exercise aimed to strengthen and maintain the long-standing cooperation between the two forces.

Three buildings in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, southeast of Gaza City, have collapsed on their residents as severe weather continues to batter the area, according to reports from Al Jazeera Arabic and local media.

Gaza’s Civil Defence has urged people to avoid living in structures at risk of collapse, warning that the ongoing storm could bring down more buildings.

US Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, has said that Ankara’s inclusion in the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) for Gaza would be “beneficial”.

Speaking at the Jerusalem Post’s Washington Conference, in comments shared by Israeli journalist Amichai Stein on X, Barrack argued thatTurkey's involvement would bolster the ISF, which forms part of the current ceasefire arrangement.

"Our suggestion was that since the Turks have the largest and most effective ground troop operation in the region, and since they have a dialogue with Hamas, perhaps that would be beneficial as part of the force to cool the temperature," he said.

Israel has consistently opposed Turkey's participation in the ISF.

In October, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar stated that Turkish troops could not join the mission due to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s stance towards Israel.

That same month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also declared that no Turkish forces would be deployed to Gaza, describing the idea as a “red line”.

Palestine are set to play Saudi Arabia in the Arab Cup quarterfinal, with kick-off in around an hour.

This marks the first time the Palestinian national team has advanced to the knockout stages of the tournament.

Their achievement has offered a rare moment of collective joy amid the destruction caused by Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

During a recent press conference, player Hamed Hamdan said the victory belonged to “our Palestinian people, who deserve every moment of joy”.

Israel's far-right national security minister on Thursday vowed to remove the grave of Arab nationalist leader Ezzedine al-Qassam, whose tomb lies in Israel and whose name was given to the armed wing of Hamas.

Itamar Ben Gvir, known for his inflammatory remarks, posted a video on X showing him accompanying security forces as they dismantled a prayer tent next to the grave of the Syrian-born operative.

Al-Qassam, who was killed in a firefight in 1935, fought against the British and Zionism in mandate Palestine before Israel's creation in 1948.

His grave is situated near Haifa in northern Israel and has been vandalised on several occasions over the years.

"The tomb of arch-terrorist Ezzedine al-Qassam in Nesher must be removed. And yesterday at dawn, we took the first step," Ben Gvir wrote on X.

He had already called for the grave's demolition during a parliamentary debate in August.

Right-wing Israeli daily Israel Hayom reported that security forces also took down surveillance cameras around the burial site and removed a person guarding the premises.

 Israeli police insisted they had not been involved and referred inquiries to the authority in charge of cemeteries.

In a Hamas statement, senior official Mahmoud Mardawi decried the threat as "an unprecedented level of transgression against sanctity and desecration of holy sites, and a violation of the sanctity of graves".

"Targeting the grave of al-Qassam... is not merely an attack on a grave, but rather an attempt to erase the memory of a nation and remove a testament to our ongoing struggle," the statement added.

"Extremism has become an official, declared policy, requiring international action to curb this barbarity," it said.

Israeli attacks have killed 383 Palestinians in Gaza since the October ceasefire, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Over the past 24 hours, hospitals across the Gaza Strip received four bodies and treated 10 wounded Palestinians, the ministry reported.

In a statement on Telegram, the ministry said that since the ceasefire took effect in October, 383 people have been killed, 1,002 injured, and 627 bodies recovered.

It added that since the war began in October 2023, Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed 70,373 Palestinians and injured 171,079 others.

Gaza’s Civil Defence has reported that three buildings in Gaza City have collapsed amid the severe storm sweeping the area, though no injuries have been recorded.

"We urge citizens not to live in buildings that are about to collapse and warn of their collapse due to the low-pressure system," the rescue teams said in a statement.

Hamas has urged international mediators to pressure Israel to permit the entry of shelter materials into Gaza, saying Israel is responsible for the "tragic conditions" Palestinians are facing due to the continued blockade of essential supplies.

"We call on mediators and guarantors to pressure the occupying government to allow the entry of necessary shelter materials and to open the Rafah crossing in both directions," the group said.

Hamas accused Israel of "reneging on its commitments under the ceasefire agreement".

Israel’s restrictions include blocking items such as poles- which displaced Palestinians need to reinforce their fragile tents as harsh weather worsens- on the grounds that they are "dual-use" and could potentially be repurposed for military activities.

Even paper and pens remain barred under the same classification.

Rains drenched Gaza’s tent camps and dropping temperatures chilled Palestinians huddling inside them Thursday as storm Byron descended on the war-battered territory, showing how two months of a ceasefire have failed to sufficiently address the spiraling humanitarian crisis there.

Children’s sandaled feet disappeared under opaque brown water that flooded the camps. Trucks moved slowly to avoid sending waves of mud toward the tents. Piles of garbage and sewage turned to waterfalls.

“We have been drowned. I don’t have clothes to wear and we have no mattresses left,” said Um Salman Abu Qenas, a mother displaced from east of Khan Younis to a tent camp in Deir al-Balah. She said her family could not sleep the night before because of the water in the tent.

Aid groups say not enough shelter aid is getting into Gaza during the truce. Figures recently released by Israel's military suggest it has not met the ceasefire stipulation of allowing 600 trucks of aid into Gaza a day, though Israel disputes that finding.

“Cold, overcrowded, and unsanitary environments heighten the risk of illness and infection,” said the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, in a terse statement posted on X. “This suffering could be prevented by unhindered humanitarian aid, including medical support and proper shelter."

Humanitarian teams in Gaza are scrambling to protect families from expected floods, despite having only basic tools to work with, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

A flood risk assessment by OCHA and partner organisations found that 761 displacement sites sheltering about 850,000 people are at the highest risk. The agency noted that more than 3,500 displacement movements were recorded on 7 and 8 December, likely as people tried to move ahead of heavy rainfall forecast to hit on 10 December.

Aid workers have been trying to relocate families from exposed shoreline areas, with several hundred aiming to reach safer parts of Khan Younis. UN partners are handing out remaining flour sacks for use as makeshift sandbags, along with small quantities of proper sandbags and tools wherever they can.

Gaza's health ministry says four bodies and 10 wounded Palestinians arrived at hospitals across the territory in the past 24 hours, highlighting ongoing Israeli attacks despite the current ceasefire.

In a statement posted on Telegram, the ministry said 383 Palestinians have been killed, 1,002 injured, and 627 bodies recovered since the ceasefire began in October.

It added that since the war first erupted in October 2023, Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed 70,373 people and left 171,079 others injured.

Jonathan Crickx, UNICEF's chief of communication in Palestine, said the scenes he witnessed in a displacement camp in Deir el-Balah this morning underscored how desperate conditions have become for children.

Many were barefoot, he said, with their clothes and mattresses drenched as makeshift tents failed to keep out the rain.

He told Al Jazeera that children were falling ill in large numbers and have had no respite after two years of war.

Although UNICEF and other agencies have seen a modest increase in aid entering Gaza in recent weeks, Crickx said the overall situation remains bleak.

UNICEF has so far distributed only 7,500 tents, while hundreds of thousands of families still need shelter. Crickx noted that up to 90 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed and that UN estimates now place 1.5 million people at risk.

He warned that worsening hygiene and flooding could trigger outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as acute diarrhoea.

More than one million children are in need, many of them displaced several times with little more than the clothes they are wearing.

Israel said on Thursday that Hamas "will be disarmed" as part of the US-sponsored peace plan for Gaza, after a top leader from the movement suggested a weapons freeze.

"There will be no future for Hamas under the 20-point plan. The terror group will be disarmed and Gaza will be demilitarised," the Israeli official told AFP news agency.

Hamas's Khaled Meshaal told Qatari news channel Al Jazeera on Wednesday that the group is open to a weapons "freeze", but rejects the demand for disarmament put forward in US President Donald Trump's plan for Gaza.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office says that at least three Palestinians have been detained during the latest Israeli raids across the occupied West Bank.

In Hebron, Israeli soldiers arrested a man and his son in Khirbet Qalqas after storming their home. Earlier on Thursday, another Palestinian was detained in Nablus.

After officials confirmed that a baby girl in Gaza had died from the cold, her mother told the Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera that she had done everything she could to keep her daughter warm.

The infant, who was under a year old, died during the night. Her family, who have been displaced, are living in a tent under severe winter conditions.

"It was raining, fiercely cold, and I had very little to keep her warm. I fed her and put her to sleep. I wrapped her up the best I could, but it wasn’t enough," the mother said.

"It kept raining, and the cold was getting worse. I was panicking all night, as the cold kept creeping in. Then, suddenly, I found my little baby motionless, dead," she added.

Child rights organisation Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) has released information about the killing of a 17-year-old Palestinian by Israeli forces over the weekend.

Ahmad Khalil Rajabi was driving his family’s vehicle in Hebron when Israeli soldiers fatally shot him on Sunday evening before seizing his body.

The soldiers involved attempted to justify the shooting by alleging that Ahmad had tried to run over one of them. His father rejected the claim, saying his son was "visiting a patient at the hospital and was on his way home" when he was killed, according to the DCIP’s statement.

"Israel’s practice of withholding Palestinian bodies is a form of collective punishment, a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, and deprives Palestinian families of the ability to lay their children to rest," the DCIP said.

So far this year, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 53 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank.

With Ahmad’s body now withheld, the total number of Palestinian minors whose remains Israel has refused to return since 2016 has reached 55.

Israeli forces killed 17-year-old Ahmad Khalil Ahmad Rajabi in Hebron and then confiscated his body. Ahmad was driving to visit a friend when soldiers opened fire on his car. Israel has killed 53 Palestinian children in the West Bank this year. Read more: https://t.co/Dv3AaPwpPk pic.twitter.com/eczI0XUtnO

— Defense for Children (@DCIPalestine) December 10, 2025

Gaza’s shelter crisis is deepening as winter storms expose the fragility of its displacement camps. The Government Media Office says around one and a half million displaced Palestinians are living in severe conditions, many in tents that can no longer withstand cold, wind or heavy rain.

Ismail al Thawabta, who heads the media office, said hundreds of thousands of families are trying to survive in worn-out tents battered by Israel’s war of extermination and recent storms. He said Gaza needs 300,000 new tents, yet only 20,000 have been allowed in.

A recent rainstorm, he noted, flooded tens of thousands of tents and left whole areas covered in mud and stagnant water.

More than 22,000 tents were destroyed along with tarpaulins, insulation materials and blankets. Emergency shelters collapsed, temporary water networks failed and mixed with floodwater, and ten mobile medical points were knocked out.

Vital supplies have been lost and medical teams are struggling to reach those in need. Al Thawabta said displaced families have been left without even the basics for survival and are now facing winter with almost no protection.

A segment on Israel’s right-wing Channel 14 News sparked outrage after panellists openly mocked the flooding sweeping through Gaza as Storm Byron moves across the region. The storm has brought heavy rain and flooding to both the Gaza Strip and parts of Israel, but the channel used its evening broadcast to take aim at Palestinians instead.

Channel 14, known for its strong support of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, rarely shows footage from inside Gaza. When it did so last night, commentators immediately blamed the scenes on Hamas rather than the severe weather.

One panellist said he felt no empathy for Palestinians facing rising water levels, claiming the flooding amounted to “cleansing” and calling it divine punishment.

Another insisted “all of them” had taken part in the 7 October attacks, using the disaster to repeat sweeping accusations against Gaza’s population.

The remarks drew criticism online, where viewers said the broadcast dehumanised Palestinians already living through catastrophic conditions.

Israeli forces detained a young man on Thursday after surrounding a home in the Old City of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, according to Wafa news agency.

The agency reported that Israeli special forces infiltrated the al-Qaysariya neighbourhood before detaining Ibrahim Habash.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz has toured the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing in southern Gaza alongside Israeli military officials.

Waltz asserted that, since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect, more than 600 trucks have been entering Gaza each day carrying food, shelter materials and medical supplies.

The UN and international aid organisations have warned, however, that the volume of food assistance and emergency equipment reaching the territory remains far below what is needed, with Israel continuing to restrict access.

At Israel’s southern border with Egypt, I visited Kerem Shalom to see firsthand the primary processing point for international aid and commercial goods into Gaza.

Since President Trump’s Peace Plan was endorsed by the UN Security Council, over 600 trucks per day are now… pic.twitter.com/fLyonXD32p

— Ambassador Mike Waltz (@USAmbUN) December 10, 2025

A nine-month-old baby has died from exposure to the severe cold in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, according to Al Jazeera Arabic- citing its medical sources.

Temperatures have continued to fall as heavy rain sweeps across the besieged territory, while Israel maintains restrictions on vital humanitarian aid- including essential shelter materials- entering the area.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) confirmed on Wednesday that the Andres Iniesta-headed NSN Cycling Team -- formerly Israel Premier Tech -- would compete on the elite-level World Tour the next three years.

The new team largely takes over the structure of Israel PT, which was targeted by pro-Palestinian protests earlier this year, leading to the disruption of some major races.

Pro-Palestinian protesters caused several stages of the Vuelta a Espana to be either shortened or neutralised while they also caused some cyclists to crash.

Israel PT were also forced to pull out of several races in Italy over fears that they would be disrupted by protesters.

The team was previously owned by Canadian-Israeli property developer Sylvan Adams, who had dubbed himself an unofficial ambassador for Israel, which in October signed a fragile ceasefire with Palestinian armed group Hamas in Gaza after two years of war.

Former Spain and Barcelona football star Iniesta is a co-founder of sports and entertainment agency NSN which, partnered with Swiss global investment platform Stoneweg, took over the team in November.

NSN Cycling will race under a Swiss licence, but will be based in Spain, and has already signed a star name in the form of sprinter Biniam Girmay.

The Eritrean's former team, Intermarche, was also included in the list of 18 teams to compete on the World Tour for the next three years unveiled by the UCI.

It will race under the new guise of Lotto-Intermarche -- confirming the long-awaited merger between the two Belgian organisations.

"In recent months we have worked very hard behind the scenes to build a solid project, based on the foundations of Lotto Cycling Team and Intermarche-Wanty," new team CEO Jean-Francois Bourlart said in a statement.