The rain was not just droplets of water, it became a nightmare haunting thousands of displaced people in the Gaza Strip.
Families forced by war to leave their homes now face a painful reality: their tents, which are supposed to shelter them, are flooding with the very first winter storm. Children shiver from the bitter cold, adults stand helpless, trapped between oppression, powerlessness, and abandonment.
Aya Farah Abu Nasr, a young woman from northern Gaza living in the Dawar 17 area west of Deir al-Balah, recounts the first moments of the storm with a voice trembling between tears, ‘We knew the rain was coming, but I never imagined our tent would flood with the first drizzle. It was a deeply painful feeling, full of oppression and helplessness.
‘The children were trembling, their hands and faces red from the cold, and my heart was breaking as I tried to comfort them.’
With the first drop, water began seeping into the tent, mixed with piercing cold, turning the space into something uninhabitable. The family tried lifting the tent slightly, moving their belongings, and digging the ground to divert the water, but every effort was in vain.
‘We spent long hours trying to save whatever we could. We didn’t know what to do. My mother collapsed from exhaustion and worry, and I cried silently, feeling completely powerless in the face of nature.’
The children cried loudly, searching for their mothers’ arms to feel warmth, but the place offered no protection. The loud pounding of rain on the tent and the soaked ground beneath their feet made everything more terrifying. Every small step required extreme caution to avoid slipping or losing their belongings to the water. Every movement was physically and emotionally draining.
What Aya and her family are living through is not an isolated case, it is a mirror of the suffering of thousands of families in Gaza. Temporary tents turn into watery prisons in winter, threatening the lives of those inside.
Children cry from the cold, adults suffocate with helplessness and anger, overwhelmed by a constant feeling of abandonment, as if the world has closed its eyes to their daily suffering.
Aya sends a heartfelt plea to the world: ‘We are a people who only ask for safety and stability. These tents don’t protect us or our children. We need equipped caravans and bathrooms, at least to provide a minimum level of dignity and protection.’
The rain leaves no room for sleep or rest. Every small movement turns into a battle. Every attempt to adjust the tent or move belongings becomes a race against water relentlessly creeping in.
The children try to play at times to ease the fear, but the loud rain and the cold-make play impossible.
Aya continues describing the moments: ‘We tried to cover the ground with extra pieces of cloth, to lift the tent a little, to protect whatever we could. But everything was drowning. I felt that every drop of water added pain to our hearts, and every passing minute deepened our feeling of helplessness and oppression.’
In Gaza, the rain exposes the fragility of the humanitarian situation and raises the big question again: how can a displaced family protect itself in a tent that is drowning? Every winter storm becomes a new test of their resilience, and a reminder to the world that the war did not only destroy homes, but also people’s dreams and sense of safety.
This story is not just a report, it shows the daily suffering of Gaza’s displaced families: children’s tears, mothers’ fear, fathers’ helplessness in the face of nature and flooded tents. The rain exposes a harsh truth: the tent is no longer a shelter, but a trap. And the urgent need for real protection grows before this tragedy turns into an irreversible catastrophe.
Every flooded tent carries a story of pain and helplessness. Every child’s tear marks the international community’s failure to provide even the minimum level of safety. Every hour of bitter cold reminds the world that Gaza remains in desperate need of protection, dignity, and humanity.
Aya ends her story with a powerful humanitarian plea: ‘We are human. Our children are human. Our mothers and fathers are human.
‘We ask only to live in safety. The tent is no longer enough, and the cold shows no mercy. We want the world to see what is happening to us before next winter becomes an even greater tragedy.’
Meanwhile on Saturday, the Gaza Municipality launched a campaign calling for the reconstruction of the city, which suffered extensive destruction to buildings and civilian infrastructure during the genocidal war committed by the Israeli occupation army on October 7th, 2023, and which continued for two years.
The campaign, titled ‘We Will Rebuild It Again,’ was launched with the participation of the Palestinian NGO Network, the Chamber of Commerce, and a number of volunteers from all age groups, including children.
It began at the Saraya intersection in central Gaza City, and included cleaning the main streets and removing rubble and waste. It also involved planting trees along the streets to bring a sense of life back to the areas where Israel inflicted massive destruction.
According to the municipality, the campaign aims to ‘spark a glimmer of hope towards community participation in rebuilding and reconstruction, and to mobilise efforts to rebuild the city.’
Mayor Yahya al-Saraj said: ‘Today, the “We Will Rebuild It Again” campaign was launched from the beating heart of Gaza and the centre of the city, with the participation of various segments of society.’
He continued: ‘This campaign is launched with strong will. The people of Gaza remain and will not leave it, they have returned to it, and they are striving to make it even more beautiful than it was before.’
He clarified that although the campaign is ‘symbolic, it carries significant meaning on all levels.’
In this context, al-Saraj stressed that Palestinians have not lost hope and will exert all efforts to rebuild what the Israeli assault destroyed over the past two years, from infrastructure and buildings to factories, schools, churches, and mosques.
According to data from the Government Media Office (GMO), Israel’s genocidal war has destroyed 90% of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure over the course of two years.
This month, Egypt is hosting the Conference on Reconstruction, Recovery, and Development of the Gaza Strip, as United Nations estimates place the cost of rebuilding the enclave at around $70 billion.
Egypt is organising the conference as part of the Arab-Islamic plan approved last March to rebuild Gaza without displacing the Palestinians. The plan is expected to take five years at an estimated cost of around $53 billion.
In this context, the mayor of Gaza urged international organisations and the free people of the world to pressure Israel to open the borders of the Strip without restrictions and to allow the entry of reconstruction materials to restore the Strip to how it was.
He stressed the importance of beginning with rebuilding the city’s ‘infrastructure, sewers and water wells, as well as allowing the entry of shelters needed by residents,’ to alleviate their suffering, because they have been flooded during the first minor weather depression to hit the region.
He concluded: ‘Residents of the Strip must live with dignity and honour, and this is what we demand from the international community, which has been late in aiding the people of Palestine.’
Despite the ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas, which came into effect on October 10, Israel continues to impose severe restrictions on the entry of aid into the Strip, shirking its obligations under the agreement.
According to a previous statement from the GMO, ‘the average number of aid trucks entering daily does not exceed 24%, amounting to 145 trucks, compared to the 600 trucks that the agreement stipulates should enter each day.’
In addition, Israel refuses to allow the entry of shelter materials such as tents and mobile homes, which are needed to aid Palestinians who lost their homes and are now living in worn-out tents.
Over the course of two days, thousands of these tents were flooded by rainwater, worsening the humanitarian catastrophe experienced by the displaced across various areas of the Strip.
Israel’s genocidal war over the past two years has resulted in more than 69,000 Palestinian martyrs and over 170,000 wounded.
