Gaza flooding displaced families tents, Digi Mart USA News (Gaza Strip): Heavy rain and strong winds have flooded and collapsed numerous tents in the Gaza Strip. According to various media outlets citing correspondents on the ground, a severe winter storm passed over the area on Friday evening.
The media office of the Hamas-led government said 70,000 tents had been flooded. The figures cannot be independently verified.
A correspondent for the German daily taz suspects that significantly more tents may be affected.
The flooding worsens the already precarious humanitarian situation of the roughly two million people in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Ahmad Alhendawi, regional director of Save the Children International, told Al Jazeera the situation was “heartbreaking” and “completely foreseeable.” Flooding also occurred in the Gaza Strip last winter, when Hamas has shown a markedly stronger presence since a ceasefire announced in October 2025.
According to the taz correspondent, displaced residents had repeatedly asked local Hamas administrations for months to dig simple drainage ditches to protect their tents. Nothing has been done since.
Instead, the correspondent reports, Hamas has focused its efforts on collecting taxes and fees for setting up tents, with no measures taken to improve the humanitarian situation.
The Israeli military has now been active in the Gaza Strip for a third year and holds 60 percent of the territory. Hamas and other extremist militants abducted more than 250 people from Israel into Gaza during the October 7, 2023 attack, which killed about 1,200 people in Israel and triggered the Gaza war.
According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, more than 73,900 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza. Despite a ceasefire agreed last October, the Israeli military continues to strike targets in the Gaza Strip.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of the source article incorrectly described Al Jazeera as a Saudi broadcaster. It is based in Qatar, and the error has been corrected.
