Heavy rain flooded thousands of tents across the Gaza Strip early Saturday, forcing displaced Palestinian families outdoors as the first winter storm swept through displacement camps. Gaza's civil defence agency received about 1,500 distress calls in 10 hours, with water levels at several shelter sites rising by 30-40 cm (12-16 inches), according to civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal.
Basal told Al Jazeera that "a few shelter centres were completely flooded, and everyone inside them has now been forced out into the unknown." He said premature babies, the elderly and the sick faced the highest risk.
The storm also brought down buildings damaged in Israel's war on the enclave. Rescuers evacuated residents from a partially collapsed building in the Nuseirat area, and a wall of a separate building collapsed in northern Gaza, injuring two people according to the Wafa news agency.
Video from camps in Gaza City, Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah showed families wading through ankle-deep water with soaked mattresses and blankets. Al Jazeera correspondent Rami Abu Taima reported that more than 125,000 families living in al-Mawasi, a coastal area sheltering over 900,000 displaced people, faced particular risk of tents being swept away by sea.
Gaza's emergency committee said more than one million displaced people face winter dangers and the territory urgently needs about 200,000 tents plus heating supplies. Raed al-Dahshan, director of civil defence in Gaza governorate, told Al Jazeera that "Civil Defence does not have a single tarpaulin or a single tent."
Aid groups attribute the shortage of shelter materials to Israeli restrictions on entry. Mohammed Salha, director of the Palestinian NGO Network, told Al Jazeera that only 180 to 200 trucks entered Gaza daily, far below the 600 agreed under humanitarian protocol, with only about 40 carrying humanitarian aid. He said 50,000 tents had been waiting on the Egyptian side of the border.