GENEVA: Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians face flooding of their tents and shelters by heavy rains, and materials for shelters and sandbags are not being allowed to enter the enclave, the UN International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Friday.

Torrential rain swept across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, flooding tents sheltering families displaced by two years of Israeli bombardment and leading to the death of a baby girl due to exposure.

Sixteen people were dead or missing as a result of the storm, with 13 buildings having collapsed and 27,000 tents flooded, the media office of the Hamas-run government in Gaza said.

Nearly 800,000 displaced people are at heightened risk of potentially dangerous flooding in low-lying, rubble-filled areas where families are living in unsafe shelters, the IOM said. Insufficient drainage and waste management also heightened the risk of disease outbreak.

‘Our food is ruined’

Materials to help reinforce shelters such as timber and plywood, as well as sandbags and water pumps to help with flooding have been delayed from entering Gaza due to access restrictions, the IOM said.

In a displaced camp in Nuseirat, central Gaza, ankle-deep water had pooled around the tents, soaking mattresses, shoes and clothes. Working with a bucket, 50-year-old Youssef Tawtah was trying to bail the water out, but it had nowhere to go and he appeared to make little progress.

“All night long the children and I were on our feet,” he said. “How can the children handle it?”

As his family gathered around a small open fire on a sandy bank near the tent, he hauled a sopping mattress through the floodwaters. Even cooking a meal will be difficult. “Our food is ruined,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2025