Freezing conditions and torrential rains have submerged camps across the enclave, recently causing the death of a six-month-old infant in a flooded tent. An assessment by the Palestine Shelter Cluster revealed that 94 percent of the population faces crisis, critical, or catastrophic shelter conditions, yet only 10 percent received aid in the prior month. The crisis is compounded by Israeli restrictions, with 150,000 prepositioned tents blocked outside Gaza as incoming shelter supply trucks dropped from 908 in December 2025 to 409 in January 2026. Relief operations are further paralyzed by border closures and operational bans imposed on UNRWA and dozens of international non-governmental orga…
Key points
Displaced Palestinians in Gaza face life-threatening winter conditions with nearly the en…: Displaced Palestinians in Gaza face life-threatening winter conditions with nearly the entire population categorized in severe shelter distress.
Strict Israeli clearance procedures and dual-use classifications are severely restricting…: Strict Israeli clearance procedures and dual-use classifications are severely restricting the flow of vital winterization supplies into the territory.
Operational bans on major humanitarian agencies and the closure of the Rafah crossing hav…: Operational bans on major humanitarian agencies and the closure of the Rafah crossing have crippled widespread international relief efforts.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
Days ago, baby Ehab Mohammad Hamad was found by his mother, lifeless with blue lips, fingers and toes.
The six-month year old died of exposure after his family’s tent was flooded.
“No matter how hard we tried to keep the child warm and wrap him in blankets, it was all in vain,” the child’s grandmother said in a video posted by the Palestinian-led mutual aid group, the Sameer Project.
The group provided the family with a dome tent. But Hala Sabbah, who works with the organisation, said that the story fell on deaf ears.
“I was really frustrated that it wasn’t talked about,” Sabbah told MEE.
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The deaths of Gaza’s babies in freezing, storm-battered tents is now becoming an annual phenomenon in the aid-starved enclave.
For the fourth winter in a row, rains have swept through Gaza, exposing woefully inadequate supplies of materials for shelter entering the strip.
“There are tens of thousands of tents, winter coats,…
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