Gaza floods have left tens of thousands of displaced families without shelter, and the United Arab Emirates has ordered tents for 50,000 people as aid agencies warn that the worst of winter is yet to come.
According to the Dubai Media Office, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has directed the distribution of tents to shelter 50,000 people in the Gaza Strip as the rainy winter season sets in. The tents are being delivered under the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives Foundation in collaboration with Operation Chivalrous Knight 3.
Heavy rain late on Sunday washed away a rocky sand bank abutting a camp, and at least 70,000 tents had been flooded in the first hours after heavy rain began on Saturday, according to local authorities cited by Virgin Radio Dubai.
Deaths and missing
According to the UN aid coordination office (OCHA), in an update released on Monday, an infant drowned and five Gazans were killed, including three children, when a sand dune collapsed on tents at Al Berka Reservoir, west of Deir al-Balah. UNICEF reported three children aged four, five and eight killed along with their mother in the same collapse; Save the Children reported four children killed and two people missing. The toll is not settled — use the OCHA figure as the lead and note the differing counts.
According to OCHA, in an update released on Monday, thousands of families lost shelters and belongings as rain and strong winds began lashing Gaza on Friday night, flooding displacement sites, collapsing damaged buildings and disrupting services across all five governorates. By 8 November, humanitarian partners had received appeals for aid from more than 26,000 households whose shelters or belongings were damaged. More than 6,000 family shelters were reportedly destroyed and 17,400 damaged, and more than 3,900 households currently have no shelter at all.
Water levels rose to 1.5 metres in some locations, and civil defence units received 2,166 distress calls but could respond to only 218, according to OCHA. At least 55 learning spaces serving some 55,000 children were also flooded. About 70,000 tents housing an estimated 350,000 people — including 210,000 children — were flooded in 12 hours of torrential rain, according to Save the Children.
Aid blocked at the border
The UN and its partners are pumping out water, improving drainage, reinforcing sites with sandbags, repairing shelters and delivering emergency supplies, according to OCHA. But humanitarian stocks of tents, tarpaulins, blankets and clothes inside Gaza are virtually exhausted. More than 150,000 tents purchased by humanitarian partners and member states are outside Gaza ready to be dispatched, including about 117,000 from the Egyptian Relief Committee in Al-Arish.
UN Deputy Special Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov called for the urgent lifting of restrictions and delays preventing aid organisations from bringing in vacuum trucks, dewatering pumps, heavy machinery, tents, tarpaulins, blankets and winter clothing. UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told Monday’s briefing that Israeli efforts to facilitate rebuilding in Gaza had been insufficient.
The Board of Peace, in a statement issued on 9 November, called for the immediate delivery of shelter, sanitation and winter supplies, and urged Israel to authorise entry of materials for temporary shelters, water and sanitation infrastructure and drainage. UNICEF, which reached at least 10,000 children with winter clothing and thermal blankets in the past week, is seeking US$97.5 million for its winter response in Gaza.
Sources: UN News / OCHA, 9 Nov 2026; UNICEF, 9 Nov 2026; Save the Children, 9 Nov 2026; Virgin Radio Dubai / Dubai Media Office, 10 Nov 2026; Board of Peace via R24, 10 Nov 2026
