The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) warns of the continued deterioration of the humanitarian conditions of displaced people in the Gaza Strip, particularly amid official forecasts indicating that, starting today, Gaza will face heavy rainfall, floods, flash floods, and strong winds that are expected to destroy thousands of worn-out tents sheltering more than one million displaced persons. Warnings issued by competent authorities highlight the immense risks to the lives of thousands of displaced people, especially those living in fragile tents while lacking basic infrastructure, including the al-Mawasi area in western Khan Younis, which has become the largest sheltering site for displaced persons across the Strip. These developments come at a time when safe living conditions are entirely unavailable, prompting PCHR to issue an urgent appeal to the international community, UN bodies, and humanitarian organizations to intervene immediately and effectively to prevent an imminent humanitarian catastrophe and to ensure displaced persons’ right to safe and dignified shelter-an inalienable and fundamental right under all circumstances.
Despite the ceasefire declared on 10 October 2025, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continue to impose strict restrictions on the entry of adequate shelter materials into the Gaza Strip. The Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General, Stéphane Dujarric, stated in a recent briefing the Israeli authorities have rejected 23 requests from nine of our partners to bring in nearly 4,000 pallets of critical supplies, including tents, sealing and framing kits, bedding, kitchen sets and blankets.1
Moreover, UN reports stressed that the truckloads of shelter materials that have entered the Strip since the ceasefire represent only a very limited portion of actual needs. The Gaza Strip requires hundreds of thousands of temporary residential units, not merely a few thousand additional tents that offer no protection from rain, wind, or cold. According to government statistics, only 13,511 truckloads have entered the Gaza Strip within 60 days, out of the 36,000 truckloads that were supposed to enter—an average of 226 trucks per day out of the 600 supposed to enter, a rate not exceeding 38%.2 This severe shortfall has resulted in continued shortages of food, medicine, water, and fuel, further deepening the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
As the Gaza Strip comes under the impact of a severe weather depression, concerns are rising alarmingly over the worsening conditions of displaced people and those sheltering in tents. The tents—many of which leak water and lack proper thermal insulation—are turning into damp environments that contribute to the spread of dermatological and respiratory diseases. This situation is further exacerbated by warnings from local and municipal authorities about the risks of water contamination and the collapse of sewage networks. In recent days and weeks, the Gaza Strip has witnessed heavy rainfall and sudden weather shifts that have caused widespread flooding, sweeping away tents and destroying displaced families’ belongings. According to field testimonies documented by PCHR, hundreds of thousands of families continue to live in uninhabitable conditions, relying on tents that fail to provide even the bare minimum of human dignity.
Thus, PCHR emphasizes that makeshift tents are not a viable solution. The urgent requirement is to bring in more adequate housing models, including prefabricated housing units that are weather-resistant and equipped with sewage systems, alternative energy sources, and infrastructure ensuring a minimum level of privacy and safety. These units constitute an immediate humanitarian necessity that cannot be postponed and represent a moral and legal obligation for the international community not to neglect.
PCHR considers the ongoing Israeli restrictions on the entry of shelter materials, including ready-to-use temporary shelters such as caravans and construction materials suitable for harsh conditions, as a serious violation of international humanitarian law and a continuation of the IOF’s genocide against civilians in Gaza over the past two years. PCHR stresses that leaving hundreds of thousands of civilians without adequate shelter in these severe weather conditions can only be seen as a deliberate entrenchment of Gazans’ suffering, aimed at forcing them either into migration or into despair, with devastating mental and health collapse. Furthermore, the persistence of the humanitarian crisis and the prevention of any adequate solutions, even after the ceasefire, reflect a clear intent to make life in Gaza unlivable and irreparable, in direct violation of the occupying power’s obligations under international humanitarian law.
In light of the above, PCHR:
