GAZA: Heavy rain caused flooding in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, swamping the tents of thousands of homeless Palestinians facing the prospect of harsh winter storms without sturdy shelter.
The large majority of Gaza’s two million people were forced from their homes during Israel’s two-year ground and air assault in the small, crowded enclave triggered by Hamas’s October 2023 raid, with many now living in tents and other basic shelters.
A ceasefire has broadly held since mid-October but the bombing demolished much of heavily built-up Gaza, including basic infrastructure, leaving grim living conditions for most people.
“This suffering, this rain — and the low-pressure weather systems havent even started yet. It’s only the beginning of winter, and were already flooded and humiliated,” Um Ahmed Aowdah said outside her tent as rain pelted down on Tuesday. “We haven’t received new tents or tarps. Our tarp is two years old and our tent is two years old - theyre completely worn out.” Amjad Al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGOs Network, said there was an urgent need for at least 300,000 new tents to house the roughly 1.5m people still displaced from their homes.
The Palestinian Civil Defence Service said thousands of tents housing displaced families had been inundated by rainwater or damaged by torrential rainstorms over the past week.
Some tents completely washed away as floodwaters rose 40 to 50 centimetres above ground level in some areas of the coastal enclave, while a field hospital had to suspend operations due to flooding, medics and witnesses said.
The United Nations said on Monday that while it was working to bring winter supplies into Gaza, the number of trucks able to enter the enclave was limited by Israeli curbs on aid groups.
Worst-ever collapse
The two-year Gaza bombardment and economic restrictions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank have triggered the worst collapse in the Palestinian economy on record, wiping out decades of growth, a United Nations report said on Tuesday. The Palestinian economy across the West Bank and Gaza contracted by 30pc in 2024 compared with 2022 — the benchmark being used to measure the impact of the two-year conflict, the report by the UN Trade and Development agency (UNCTAD) said.
That is the steepest fall since data collection began in 1972, exceeding previous economic downturns during the many conflicts since then including the second Intifada after the failure of peace talks in 2000, it said. “What we see today is extremely worrying. The prolonged military operation, combined with long-standing restrictions, has pushed the economy of the occupied Palestinian territory into its deepest decline on record,” UNCTAD Deputy Secretary General Pedro Manuel Moreno told reporters in Geneva.
GDP per capita has returned to that of 2003, erasing 22 years of progress, the report said, describing the crisis as among the 10 worst globally since 1960. The scale of the damage in Gaza means the enclave will be reliant on extensive international support for years to come, the report said.
Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2025