Published On 12 Dec 2025
Storm Byron has pummelled Gaza’s makeshift tent camps, drenching tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians and highlighting how two months of ceasefire have failed to address the worsening humanitarian crisis.
Families discovered their possessions and food supplies soaked inside tents. Children waded through opaque brown floodwater that submerged sandalled feet and ran knee-deep in some areas. Dirt roads transformed into mud while rubbish and sewage flowed like waterfalls.
“We have been drowned. I don’t have clothes to wear and we have no mattresses left,” said Um Salman Abu Qenas, a displaced mother in a Khan Younis tent camp. She said that her family could not sleep the night before because of the water in the tent.
Aid organisations report insufficient shelter materials being allowed to enter Gaza during the truce, compounding the war misery as a natural disaster hits. Recent figures from Israel’s military indicate it has not met the ceasefire requirement of allowing 600 aid trucks daily into Gaza.
“Cold, overcrowded, and unsanitary environments heighten the risk of illness and infection,” the United Nations agency for Pa