Downpours flood 70,000 tents in Gaza, five people injured

Storm floods displaced people's camps

Heavy rain and wind, accompanied by a cold air mass, hit the Gaza Strip on Friday evening. According to the Gaza government's media office, in the first 12 hours of the storm, 70,000 tents housing displaced Palestinians were flooded and dozens of walls collapsed; preliminary direct damage is estimated at about $3 million, Anadolu reported, citing the media office.

Building collapses and casualties

According to medical sources, five Palestinians, including two women, were injured in separate incidents in the north and center of the enclave: two walls collapsed and a sheet of corrugated metal fell. Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal told the agency that his crews responded to four storm-related collapses, all of them in homes weakened by previous Israeli strikes. In the Nuseirat refugee camp, residents of a three-story building that partially collapsed under rain and wind were evacuated; in the neighboring Bureij camp, the roof of a house caved in. In central Gaza City, a four-story building near the courthouse, damaged by a strike during the war, collapsed — footage of the collapse circulated on social media. According to Basal, no one was killed in these four incidents.

Services cannot cope with the number of calls

Gaza's Civil Defense said that since the start of the storm it has received 2,166 calls for help but was able to respond to only 218, as rainwater flooded dozens of camps, shelters and entire residential neighborhoods. At a press conference, Basal warned that more than 2,000 buildings could collapse along with the people inside them if the services are not allowed to bring in the necessary equipment.

The scale of the shelter problem

The report provides context on the scale: according to August figures from the Gaza media office, more than 2.15 million displaced people were living in harsh conditions, including about 867,000 in worn-out tents and more than a million in shelters. On Thursday, the UNRWA agency, citing surveys conducted June 14–28, reported that 1.98 million people — about 94% of Gaza's population — need shelter and non-food assistance. The outlet notes that the storm worsened the situation of thousands of displaced people living in tents without heating or adequate protection from rain and cold amid large-scale destruction of housing and infrastructure.