As winter approaches, families across Gaza are struggling to protect themselves from cold and flooding, with millions still needing shelter assistance and limited access to durable building materials.
Ahmed Al-Omari is among those racing to prepare for another season of heavy rain. Working alongside other young men, he is filling discarded flour sacks with sand to create barriers around makeshift shelters.
The sacks once held flour distributed through the World Food Programme (WFP), which families relied on to obtain food amid the dangers of aid distribution in Gaza.
“These are flour sacks that we used to retrieve from the jaws of death, so that we could eat,” Al-Omari said. “Now, they have become sacks that we fill with sand to act as barriers against rainwater.”
He said families face flooding every year and are using the sacks in the hope of keeping rainwater out of their shelters.
Millions need shelter assistance
Around two million people in Gaza need shelter assistance, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Rain has already begun, while an intensifying El Niño could bring further rainfall in the coming months.
Humanitarian agencies are trying to bring as many shelter supplies into Gaza as possible before winter, said Karl Baker, IOM’s regional crisis coordinator for Gaza.
However, the available supplies are expected to fall short of the population’s needs.
Baker said funding delays had hampered preparations. Although money was beginning to arrive, the available resources were insufficient to meet the estimated shelter needs of 1.8 million to 1.9 million people.
Regional conflict disrupts supply chains
The wider regional conflict is also disrupting supply chains and delaying deliveries.
IOM sources supplies from countries including China, India and Pakistan, with shipments routed through Jordan, Egypt and Israel before reaching Gaza.
Baker warned that continued disruption to international shipping could affect both the volume and timing of deliveries.
Tents offer only temporary protection
The durability of available shelters remains another concern. In other emergencies, IOM can provide more robust transitional accommodation, including plywood structures and relief housing units.
In Gaza, however, tents typically last only around six months. Repeated displacement often forces families to abandon or lose their shelters when they have to flee at short notice.
Baker said constant movement had affected the quality of temporary shelters and called for more durable materials or additional supplies to improve living conditions.
More than 4,000 buildings, many housing thousands of residents, are reportedly at risk of collapse.
Briefing the UN Security Council, Ramiz Alakbarov, acting Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said the UN was working with local communities to evacuate people from unsafe buildings. But without alternative accommodation, many families have little choice but to move into tents.
The space available to residents is also limited. Baker said only around 30 per cent of Gaza was accessible to most people, while humanitarian assessments indicated worsening conditions at displacement sites, where many families face flooding and have few alternatives.
Families salvage materials to reinforce shelters
In Khan Younis in southern Gaza, displaced resident Mohammed Barhoum and his sons are trying to strengthen their shelter with metal rods salvaged from rubble.
The work is dangerous because of unstable debris and explosive remnants of war.
Barhoum said the area floods during heavy winter rainfall, prompting his family to reinforce their tent with the recovered metal rods.
“It is a new experiment, and we will see how it goes,” he said, expressing hope that conditions would improve compared with the previous winter.
Durable building materials remain restricted
Many durable shelter materials that humanitarian agencies would normally use are subject to Israeli restrictions on so-called dual-use items, which date back to 2008.
These include roofing sheets and cement needed for floors and stronger walls that could better withstand winter weather. Such materials may be considered security concerns by Israeli authorities.
Baker said IOM was in frequent contact with the authorities to address their concerns and negotiate the entry of these supplies.
He stressed that humanitarian agencies would continue to advocate for access to more durable materials to help families withstand the coming winter.