GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — An 8-month-old girl died of hypothermia after floodwater rushed into her family’s tent Thursday as a Gaza winter storm hammered displacement camps across the enclave, aid officials and medics said. UN agencies say the storm is laying bare an urgent gap in shelter and winter supplies that could turn more flooded tents into funerals, Dec. 12, 2025.
The child, Rahaf Abu Jazar, died after water inundated the family’s tent in Khan Younis, according to a Reuters report from Gaza. “When we woke up, we found the rain over her and the wind on her, and the girl died of cold suddenly,” her mother, Hejar Abu Jazar, said.
Gaza winter storm turns tents into traps
The U.N. migration agency said nearly 795,000 displaced people are living in unsafe shelters in low-lying, rubble-filled areas at heightened flood risk. It said supplies already dispatched — including waterproof tents, thermal blankets and tarpaulins — have not held up in flooding, while key materials such as timber, plywood, sandbags and water pumps remain delayed from entering Gaza because of access restrictions, according to the agency’s latest warning cited by Reuters. “After this storm made landfall yesterday, families are trying to protect their children with whatever they have,” IOM Director General Amy Pope said.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said at least 27,000 tents were flooded and 13 buildings collapsed, with 12 people reported dead or missing. The World Health Organization warned that thousands are sheltering in coastal high-risk areas exposed to waves, debris and pollution.
OCHA said the Byron winter storm threat stretches far beyond a single camp: nearly 850,000 people are sheltering in 761 displacement sites particularly vulnerable to flooding, with inundation confirmed at 219 sites affecting more than 140,000 people, according to OCHA’s Situation Report No. 42.
OCHA said partners have been clearing storm drains, reinforcing some areas with sandbags and scaling up winter clothing distributions for children — from 5,000 kits a day to 8,000 — detailed in a U.N. Geneva briefing.
Israel says it is meeting its obligations, and COGAT said it has approved 100,000 pallet requests for winter-related items in the past three months and facilitated the transfer of close to 270,000 tents and tarpaulins. Aid agencies say the shelter stock still falls far short, and U.N. and Palestinian officials have said at least 300,000 new tents are urgently needed for roughly 1.5 million people still displaced.
Even when supplies enter, aid groups say many tents are too thin to withstand repeated flooding. “Cold, overcrowded, and unsanitary environments heighten the risk of illness and infection,” UNRWA said, as cited by The Associated Press.
A deadly pattern predates this Gaza winter storm
Winters have been brutal for Gaza’s displaced long before this week. Reuters reported in December 2024 that a newborn died of hypothermia in a tent camp as cold and rain swept the strip, and in December 2023 it described strong winds and heavy rain tearing and flooding flimsy tents as families tried to keep children warm.
Even in calmer years, Gaza struggled to drain floodwater: a 2014 OCHA update on winter rains noted mobile pumps were procured after the 2013 Alexa storm displaced about 21,000 people — and that more were still needed across the coastline.
UN agencies warn the next Gaza winter storm could hit camps already soaked, with mattresses, food and clothing ruined. They say the difference between misery and another preventable death may come down to whether shelter and drainage materials arrive before the rain returns.
