A series of winter storms has swept through Gaza’s displacement camps, flooding tents, collapsing damaged buildings, and killing Palestinians who have nowhere else to go. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini put it plainly: “There is nothing inevitable about this.”
“More rain. More human misery, despair and death,” Lazzarini said in a statement. “People in Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents and among ruins. Aid supplies are not being allowed in at the scale required.”
Since Storm Byron struck Gaza beginning December 10, at least 235,000 people have been affected — with an estimated 17 buildings collapsed, and more than 42,000 tents or makeshift shelters sustaining full or partial damage. The Palestinian government estimates Gaza needs approximately 200,000 prefabricated housing units to meet urgent shelter needs. None have arrived.
UNRWA’s statement was unambiguous about the cause: “While Storm Byron that struck Gaza from December 10 was a natural hazard, its consequences are man-made.” Two years of Israeli military operations have destroyed the housing stock. Repeated displacement orders have pushed families out of every structure they might have sheltered in. The ceasefire agreement promised 600 aid trucks per day; Israel has allowed an average of 253 — less than half. Fuel deliveries sit at 10 percent of the agreed level, leaving hospitals, bakeries, and water facilities on the brink of collapse.
When Palestinians die of hypothermia, when children are pulled from flooded tents, when the winter itself becomes lethal — it is not a weather event. It is the documented, predictable, preventable result of a two-year policy of destruction and siege. The storms do not choose their victims. The conditions that make storms fatal are chosen every day.
Winter Is Killing People in Gaza. UNRWA Says the Consequences Are Man-Made.
A series of winter storms has swept through Gaza’s displacement camps, flooding tents, collapsing damaged buildings, and killing Palestinians who have nowhere else to go. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini put it plainly: “There is nothing inevitable about this.”
“More rain. More human misery, despair and death,” Lazzarini said in a statement. “People in Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents and among ruins. Aid supplies are not being allowed in at the scale required.”
Since Storm Byron struck Gaza beginning December 10, at least 235,000 people have been affected — with an estimated 17 buildings collapsed, and more than 42,000 tents or makeshift shelters sustaining full or partial damage. The Palestinian government estimates Gaza needs approximately 200,000 prefabricated housing units to meet urgent shelter needs. None have arrived.
UNRWA’s statement was unambiguous about the cause: “While Storm Byron that struck Gaza from December 10 was a natural hazard, its consequences are man-made.” Two years of Israeli military operations have destroyed the housing stock. Repeated displacement orders have pushed families out of every structure they might have sheltered in. The ceasefire agreement promised 600 aid trucks per day; Israel has allowed an average of 253 — less than half. Fuel deliveries sit at 10 percent of the agreed level, leaving hospitals, bakeries, and water facilities on the brink of collapse.
When Palestinians die of hypothermia, when children are pulled from flooded tents, when the winter itself becomes lethal — it is not a weather event. It is the documented, predictable, preventable result of a two-year policy of destruction and siege. The storms do not choose their victims. The conditions that make storms fatal are chosen every day.