A sand embankment collapse killed 5 people south of Deir al-Balah on 8 November. The UN says more than 26,000 households reported damage to shelters or belongings after the weekend storms.
Heavy rain and high winds brought down a sand embankment onto tents at a camp for displaced families southwest of Deir al-Balah on 8 November, killing 5 people. The collapse followed the season’s first major storm, which flooded camps across Gaza.
On 7 November 2026, Al Jazeera reported that the season’s first winter storm had flooded thousands of tents, forcing displaced families into the cold.
The toll was initially disputed: Civil Defence first said 3 children and 2 women had died, while Gaza’s Health Ministry later said 3 children and 1 woman had been killed. Subsequent accounts, including that of the UN aid coordination office, put the toll at 5. A separate infant reportedly drowned during the storm, the UN office said.
Five injured people were reportedly rescued after the collapse. Rescuer Mustafa al-Masri told the BBC that he and others dug victims and survivors out by hand; a lack of heavy machinery made the operation harder. Videos showed men using phone torches to search beneath boulders, sand and collapsed tents.
In its 9 November account, Al Jazeera reported that two people were still missing after the collapse. Earlier on 8 November, DW had reported injuries but no flooding fatalities, before the Sunday night collapse.
Among those killed was four-year-old Habiba al-Zein. Her mother, Reem, and brother Ibrahim remained in intensive care, Al Jazeera reported on 11 November. The same report cited UNICEF as saying heavy rain had directly affected 106,000 people; thousands of tents were submerged and latrines overflowed into camps.
The United Nations made an emergency appeal for waterproof tents for people exposed to flooding in Gaza. UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said bringing tents into the territory required funding and entry permissions from Israeli authorities. Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced a new emergency initiative worth €5 million (about $5.6 million) to assist Gaza after the flooding.
The International Labour Organization and its partners have called for more recovery funding after unemployment reached 85.1% and labor-income losses totaled $2.77 billion in Gaza.
By 8 November, humanitarian partners had received appeals from more than 26,000 households whose shelters or belongings were damaged, the UN aid coordination office said. That is a count of households, distinct from the tent count: Gaza’s Government Media Office said 70,000 tents had been submerged or damaged, affecting approximately 350,000 people. The office estimated that about 70,000 tents flooded within 12 hours of the season’s first major storm. It estimated initial storm losses at about $3 million.
In az-Zawayda, water entered Jaber al-Kaseeh’s tent on Saturday night, soaking bedding and carpets and spoiling the family’s remaining food, Al Jazeera reported. He said all the roughly 40 tents remaining at the camp were damaged, torn and muddy.
DW reported that some tents had been washed away and mattresses and blankets soaked. Footage from Gaza City, Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah showed families wading through water, soaked mattresses and blankets, and children barefoot in mud and sewage.
The UN office said more than 6,000 family shelters were reportedly destroyed and 17,400 damaged, while more than 3,900 households had no shelter. It also said at least 55 learning spaces serving about 55,000 children were flooded and damage to health facilities had forced some medical teams to suspend services. Humanitarian partners had assessed the needs of 1,877 households and supported 422 households at 29 displacement sites.
Civil Defence said thousands of tents and shelters were destroyed after the heavy rain. It said it received about 1,500 distress calls in the first 10 hours after rain began early Saturday, when water rose by 30–40 centimeters at several shelter sites.
Al-Shifa Medical Complex director Mohammed Abu Salmiya said its emergency department flooded and was out of service for about four hours. He warned that sewage mixing with rainwater in tents could increase gastrointestinal, respiratory and skin infections, and predicted dozens or potentially hundreds of newborn deaths.
Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said several shelter centers were completely flooded and everyone inside had been forced out. He warned that premature babies, older people and sick residents were most at risk of illness or death in tents. Gaza governorate Civil Defence director Raed al-Dahshan said crews had no tents or tarpaulins and could save lives but do little to meet flooded families’ shelter needs.
Civil Defence said rescuers evacuated residents of a building in central Nuseirat that partially collapsed in strong winds and rain. In northern Gaza, a separate building’s wall collapsed in heavy rain, injuring two people, Wafa reported. Al Jazeera said the storm also brought down buildings damaged during Israel’s war in Gaza, which began in October 2023.
The storm also hit infrastructure already damaged during the war. The Government Media Office said more than 700 kilometers of Gaza’s sewage network had been destroyed. Gaza City municipal spokesperson Husni Muhanna said the city had lost about 85% of its vehicle and heavy-equipment fleet during the war, attributing the destruction of more than 135 vehicles and pieces of equipment to Israel.
Gaza City lost about 2,800 of its 4,800 prewar drains, increasing the risk of flooding in heavy rain.
Muhanna said Israel had destroyed 6 of the city’s 8 sewage pumps and the municipality had been unable to restart more than 2. He said the remaining system could handle no more than 20% of rainwater even in the best circumstances. The municipality relies on 1 bulldozer that often breaks down and 2 water suction trucks.
Al Jazeera reported that eight pumping stations and three main stormwater collection basins were out of service. Municipal workers were cleaning drains, clearing channels, repairing drainage lines and operating pumps, but Muhanna warned that shortages of fuel, equipment and spare parts prevented the network’s capacity from being restored.
The UN estimated that 940,000 people lived in makeshift tents in flood-risk areas. The UN and its partners were pumping out water, improving drainage, reinforcing sites with sandbags, repairing shelters and delivering emergency supplies, but the UN said stocks of tents, tarpaulins, blankets and clothing inside Gaza were virtually exhausted.
In an earlier account, Al Jazeera cited the UN aid coordination office as estimating that about 950,000 displaced people lived in flood-exposed areas. More than 400,000 people lived in areas considered at high risk, with low-lying and coastal sites particularly vulnerable.
Al Jazeera’s Rami Abu Taima reported that more than 900,000 displaced people were sheltering in southern Gaza’s coastal al-Mawasi area, and that more than 125,000 coastal families faced a particular risk of their tents being swept away by the sea.
Aid agencies said 150,000 new shelters were waiting outside Gaza for Israeli approval to enter, The Guardian reported on 11 November, citing the UN’s figure for the stock. Israel said it had allowed 10,000 tents into Gaza the previous week.
UN News separately reported that more than 150,000 tents purchased by humanitarian partners and member states were outside Gaza ready for dispatch, including about 117,000 from the Egyptian Relief Committee in Al-Arish.
Aid groups blamed Israeli restrictions on shelter materials for shortages. Gaza’s Government Media Office held Israel responsible for the disaster, citing continued crossing closures and blocked shelter and reconstruction materials. Save the Children said Israeli authorities had repeatedly blocked caravans intended under the ceasefire as a more durable alternative to tents, leaving children exposed to winter conditions.
Palestinian NGO Network director Mohammed Salha said 180–200 trucks were entering Gaza daily, against 600 agreed under the ceasefire’s humanitarian protocol, and only about 40 carried aid. He said 50,000 tents were waiting on the Egyptian side of the border and called for assistance before tents flooded.
Cogat, the Israeli military body coordinating deliveries, separately said more than 91,000 tents, 12 waste-removal vacuum trucks and fuel and engine oil for pumping facilities had been delivered under the Gaza Winterization Plan. It said Israel would not admit equipment that Hamas or other Palestinian armed groups could use for military purposes.
Gaza City Municipality and local institutions have prepared an emergency winter plan requiring $1.3 million in materials and field equipment. Al Jazeera said implementation depends on funding and supplies, whose flow is hampered by Israeli restrictions.
Gaza’s emergency committee said more than one million displaced people faced winter dangers and that about 200,000 tents and heating supplies were urgently needed.
International Organization for Migration regional crisis coordinator Karl Baker said Gaza’s 2.1 million people were confined to 30% of its area, leaving many in places they would not normally occupy outside the conflict. He said aid entering Gaza was insufficient and that the agency and its partners were working to provide tents, tarpaulins and better drainage for winter.
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