Key facts
- The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said at least 70,000 tents were flooded in 12 hours, causing injuries and no reported fatalities.
- The Gaza civil defence service said it received 1,500 distress calls from displaced residents.
- Municipal and civil defence officials said fuel shortages and damaged equipment left them unable to cope with the storm.
- Hamas blamed Israel for not allowing shelters and construction materials into Gaza.
- COGAT said it had stepped up sanitary work before the expected rain and that four vacuum trucks entered Gaza through the ICRC.
- Negotiators have failed to agree terms for Hamas to disarm or for Israel to withdraw troops from about two-thirds of Gaza.
Heavy rain flooded tens of thousands of tents housing displaced Palestinians across encampments in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on November 7, 2026. The office said at least 70,000 tents had been flooded in the previous 12 hours, affecting tens of thousands of displaced people and causing injuries, with no fatalities reported.
The territory's civil defence service said it had received 1,500 distress calls from displaced residents. Three abandoned houses collapsed without causing injuries, it said. In Gaza City, some people tried to repair their tents while others used sand to reinforce them against the water, and some worked to get children out of flooded tents.
Olfat Magdoub, a Gaza resident, tried in vain to sweep water from her tent. "This is the first day of rain, and of course we are already flooded," she said, adding that during rain two weeks earlier she had spent four days sleeping on blankets on the floor because the bedding was soaked.
Municipal and civil defence officials said they were unable to cope with the storm because of fuel shortages and damage to equipment. They said Israel had destroyed hundreds of vehicles, including bulldozers and others used to pump water, during its war against Hamas, which displaced most of the territory's more than 2 million residents and left much of Gaza in ruins. Most of the population now lives in tent camps. Hamas blamed Israel for not allowing shelters and construction materials into Gaza.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, did not immediately comment on the accusations. It said in a statement on November 6 that it had stepped up efforts to improve sanitary conditions across Gaza before the heavy rain, which had been expected, in coordination with international organizations. It said four additional vacuum trucks entered Gaza during the week through the International Committee of the Red Cross, joining eight others brought in over the past month to support sewage pumping, weekly waste removal and repairs to water and sewage infrastructure.
A US-brokered ceasefire last year called for the eventual reconstruction of Gaza, but little progress has been made. Negotiators have failed to agree on terms for Hamas to disarm or for Israel to withdraw its troops, which control about two-thirds of the territory and from which residents have been ordered to leave. "We have no resources, no tarpaulins, no tents and no one is checking on us," said displaced Gaza resident Rafiq Ghattas. Palestinian authorities say more than 74,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its assault after Hamas-led fighters killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.