Six-month-old Ehab Mohammad Hamad was found lifeless by his mother, his lips, fingers and toes turned blue. He died from exposure to the cold after his family’s tent was flooded during severe weather in Gaza.
His grandmother described the family’s desperate attempts to protect him from the freezing conditions.
“No matter how hard we tried to keep the child warm and wrap him in blankets, it was all in vain.” Ehab’s grandmother, in a video shared by the Sameer Project
The Palestinian-led mutual aid organisation later provided the family with a dome tent. But Hala Sabbah, who works with the project, told Middle East Eye that the child’s death received little attention.
Ehab’s death comes as Gaza faces its fourth consecutive winter of mass displacement, with families exposed to heavy rainfall in overcrowded camps and makeshift shelters.
Thousands of Tents Remain Outside Gaza
The humanitarian emergency has been compounded by Israeli restrictions on the entry of shelter and construction materials. Items including tent poles and mobile homes have faced restrictions under rules governing goods classified as having potential dual uses.
According to the United Nations, 150,000 tents were prepositioned outside Gaza awaiting delivery.
Sean Jones, director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, told Middle East Eye that tens of thousands of tents, blankets and winter coats remained in warehouses because Israeli approvals had not been granted.
Data from the Palestine Shelter Cluster showed that trucks carrying shelter and household supplies fell from 908 in December 2025 to 409 in January 2026.
By October, shelter supplies accounted for just 9% of aid trucks entering Gaza that month.
The Norwegian Refugee Council warned that, at the permitted rate of entry for restricted materials, delivering winter shelter supplies already stored outside Gaza could take more than seven months.
Tents Are Deteriorating as Prices Soar
Gaza’s shelter crisis is not limited to the shortage of tents. Many families are living in shelters that are no longer capable of protecting them from heavy rain and freezing weather.
An August 2026 Shelter Cluster assessment estimated that 1.98 million people, or 94% of Gaza’s population, faced crisis-level, critical or catastrophic shelter conditions.
More than half of those living in tents were using shelters assessed as being in poor or very poor condition. Another 54% had been using the same tent or makeshift shelter for at least a year.
Shaina Low of the Norwegian Refugee Council said that some tents entering Gaza were not water-resistant, forcing aid organisations to use additional tarpaulins to reinforce them.
Restrictions on international aid organisations have placed further pressure on humanitarian operations. The Norwegian Refugee Council, Médecins Sans Frontières and Oxfam were among 37 international NGOs affected by Israeli restrictions announced in December 2025.
Palestinian-led initiatives such as the Sameer Project have attempted to fill part of the gap by purchasing and distributing tents locally, despite severe shortages and inflated market prices.
Families Forced Into Flood-Prone Areas
Gaza’s displaced population has increasingly been concentrated in low-lying coastal areas as Israeli military operations, territorial restrictions and widespread destruction have reduced the land available for shelter.
A spatial investigation by Forensic Architecture documented how displaced Palestinians have been pushed into increasingly confined areas, often without adequate infrastructure.
Nicola Banks, the organisation’s head of communications, told Middle East Eye that the flooding was directly connected to the locations where displaced families had been forced to live.
“The tent camps now flooding are not an incidental feature of this.” Nicola Banks, Forensic Architecture, speaking to Middle East Eye
Banks argued that the destruction of Gaza’s built environment and the concentration of displaced Palestinians on unsuitable land were inseparable from what the organisation describes as the ongoing genocide.
Sabbah also described increasing exhaustion among Palestinian aid workers who have endured years of displacement and emergency response.
She said staff were taking more sick leave than before, with their physical health deteriorating after repeated winters in exceptionally difficult conditions.
Reporting: Middle East Eye, with humanitarian data from UN OCHA, the Palestine Shelter Cluster and the Norwegian Refugee Council.
