Torrential Rain Floods Gaza Camps, Baby Dies from Exposure

An eight month old girl identified as Rahaf Abu Jazar died after her family’s tent at a displacement site in Khan Younis took on water during a heavy storm on December 11, local medics and Gaza health officials said. Rahaf’s mother, Hejar Abu Jazar, told reporters, "When we woke up, we found the rain over her and the wind on her, and the girl died of cold suddenly," and added, "There was nothing wrong with her. Oh, the fire in my heart, the fire in my heart, oh my life."

Photographs and eyewitness accounts from Khan Younis, the Bureij refugee camp and Gaza City showed soaked bedding, collapsed shelters and alleys filled with pooled rainwater. Civil defence officials said they received more than 2,500 calls for help as tents were inundated. Medics and the Ministry of Health described Rahaf’s death as caused by exposure to the cold, variously reported as hypothermia, after the family’s temporary shelter failed to protect the child.

A United Nations assessment cited by relief agencies identified 761 displacement sites hosting about 850,000 people as particularly vulnerable to flooding. Thousands of people moved pre emptively within the enclave but many families remained in flimsy tents built after two years of war. Some outlets also cited a broader figure that as many as 1.5 million Gazans are displaced and in need of tents and shelter, illustrating the scale of shelter needs during the winter season.

Local authorities and civil defence services said their capacity to respond was sharply constrained by shortages of fuel and damage to equipment, hindering pumps, vehicles and other relief operations. Municipal authorities in Gaza City warned residents to avoid low lying areas and renewed appeals to the international community and humanitarian organizations for urgent assistance, saying there were no suitable alternatives available for many families displaced again by flooding.

On the ground, displaced Palestinians improvised defenses with shovels and sandbags, racing to clear drains and protect shelters from wind and rain. Relief workers and reporters documented damaged food stores and ruined flour supplies, raising immediate concerns about short term food security for families already surviving on precarious rations. Some reports named the weather system as Storm Byron, and Al Jazeera linked the disaster to restrictions on the entry of essential winter supplies.

The floodings carry immediate and longer term economic and policy implications. Logistical bottlenecks and fuel shortfalls will increase the cost and time needed to deliver tents, blankets and food, straining humanitarian budgets and complicating donor planning. The event highlights persistent structural challenges in Gaza, where repeated displacement, damaged infrastructure and constrained border access combine with seasonal weather risks to produce recurring protection and health emergencies.

Humanitarian agencies say urgent deliveries of durable shelter materials, fuel for pumps and generators and winterized relief items are needed now to prevent further deaths and displacement. Without a sustained improvement in access and relief capacity, officials warn that winter storms will continue to imperil hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in temporary sites.