Israeli bombs and harsh cold: Winter storms are battering Gaza's displaced Palestinians

With every winter storm that sweeps across the Gaza Strip, a new chapter of loss is written into the lives of its displaced Palestinian residents. For many Palestinians, the "ceasefire" that came into effect in October did not end the war; it merely changed its form.

Today, flimsy tents, waterlogged ground, and the absence of safe shelter have become silent killers, claiming lives as Israeli airstrikes persist.

Against this backdrop, public calls are growing for an international campaign to force the entry of aid to protect displaced families facing relentless storms.

On Sunday, Gaza's Civil Defence announced the deaths of a child and a woman as a powerful storm battered the besieged enclave.

Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal said a seven-year-old boy drowned after falling into a water-filled pit formed by torrential rain. At the same time, a 30-year-old woman was killed when a crumbling wall collapsed on her inside a displacement camp.

Bassal added that rescue teams responded to dozens of distress calls after tents flooded, pumping out rainwater and attempting to open makeshift drainage channels amid the near-total collapse of infrastructure and a severe lack of equipment and fuel.

"The water was faster than us"

In a displacement camp near Deir al-Balah, Khaled Abu Libda, 41, sat with his family in the open for hours after floodwaters swept away their tent entirely, leaving behind nothing but mud and twisted metal poles.

"The rainstorm struck before dawn, while the family was asleep," he told The New Arab. "We woke up to the children screaming."

"Within minutes, the water level rose dangerously. We tried to lift the mattresses and stack our belongings, but the water was faster than us," he added. "We couldn't save anything. The mattresses, the blankets, the children's clothes, the little food we had, even our identification papers, everything was gone."

The chaos spread quickly through the camp, Abu Libda recalled. "The four children were crying hysterically. We didn't know what to do first, protect them or try to hold the tent, which was being ripped apart by the wind," he said.

"The sound of the wind was terrifying. It was exactly like the sound of shelling. For a moment, I thought the war had come back, that we were about to be bombed again. But it was just the storm," he added.

For Umm Yazan al-Sharafi, 34, whose family was displaced from the Gaza City neighbourhood of al-Rimal to central Gaza, the storm marked the third time their tent had flooded since the start of this winter.

She described the experience as "psychologically exhausting before it is materially devastating."

"Since the storm started, we tried to patch every hole […] We put pots and buckets under the leaks. We thought we might survive this time. But the rain was heavier than everything we did," she described to TNA.

"It came from the ground and the roof. There was no dry spot left", she said. "We had to take them outside barefoot, standing in mud and freezing cold. We didn’t even have dry shoes."

"The most frightening moments," she added, "were when the tent began shaking violently. The sound brought back the same terror we felt during the bombing. We thought there was an airstrike. The children hid and cried, asking me again and again, 'Mama, are we going to die?'"

"For us, a caravan isn't a luxury," Umm Yazan said. "It's psychological safety before it’s a shelter. A tent doesn't protect us from rain or fear. With every storm, we relive the war."

Death by cold

These incidents are far from isolated. According to the health ministry in Gaza, more than 40 Palestinians have been killed during storms since the start of the war, most of them women and children.

Deaths have resulted from drowning, collapsing structures, and fires inside tents that lack even the most basic safety standards, the ministry noted.

"People in Gaza aren't only dying from [Israeli] bombs," Ahmed al-Attar, a Gaza-based activist, told TNA, saying, "They're dying from cold, rain, and neglect. Caravans have become an urgent humanitarian necessity."

In response, Palestinian activists and journalists have launched a digital campaign under the hashtags #WeWantCaravans and #LetCaravansIntoGazaNow, calling for global pressure on Israel to allow the unrestricted entry of caravans into the Gaza Strip.

Among those leading the campaign are writer Mustafa Ibrahim, journalist Mohammed Odwan, political analyst Ahed Ferwana, and field activists, including Mahmoud Za'iter from Deir al-Balah and Nour al-Din Abu Awda from Gaza City.

In a video posted online, Za'iter appeals directly to international audiences. "We are speaking to the world, to influencers, to anyone with a platform", he says. "A single caravan can save a life and prevent a tragedy. The war hasn’t ended — it has changed. Now it kills people through cold, hunger, and fear."

In Deir al-Balah, displacement camps have turned into vast swamps of mud. Mayor Nizar Ayyash told TNA the municipality is powerless to respond.

"We don't have the resources or the equipment. The tents are worn out and cannot withstand rain or wind," he said.

According to Ayyash, around 127,000 displaced people in the city are living in catastrophic conditions, with no alternatives available. He adds that the municipality needs roughly 3,000 litres of diesel daily to operate heavy machinery, but receives no more than 800 litres—often less.

Ceasefire without safety

Despite the ceasefire being announced earlier this year, many Palestinians believe that nothing about their daily reality resembles peace.

Since the announcement, more than 400 people have reportedly been killed by Israeli shelling and sporadic attacks, reinforcing the sense that the truce has failed to deliver even basic security, according to official statistics issued by the health ministry.

"We're living through another kind of war […] The rain can kill us just like the bombs did," Suad Abu Daqqa, a displaced mother of three, told TNA.

Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, killing more than 71,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom were women and children, and destroying over 85 per cent of the Strip, including entire neighbourhoods, infrastructure, and essential services.

According to Gaza's government Emergency Operations Room, the territory now requires at least 200,000 housing units to meet urgent humanitarian needs; a figure that highlights the scale of devastation and the absence of any meaningful reconstruction process.