‘We woke up soaking wet’: Gaza’s displaced face another winter of floods and collapsed shelters

For the past four days, Nahla al-Majdoub, 48, and her family of eight have been staying with neighbours in the west of Gaza City after their tent was destroyed by the latest heavy rainfall. Majdoub and her family had been sheltering in a makeshift tent at the port of Gaza for nearly two years after their home in the northern Gaza Strip was destroyed during Israel’s ground invasion. But when heavy rain and strong winds swept across the besieged enclave last week, their fragile shelter could no longer protect them. They were asleep when the storm began. They woke to the sound of thunder and rainwater pouring into their shelter, seeping through the roof and flooding the ground beneath their tent. “I woke up soaking wet. I looked at my children, who were also wet and surrounded by water. We cried helplessly, not knowing what to do or how to protect them,” Majdoub said. Read more: ‘We woke up soaking wet’: Gaza’s displaced face another winter of floods and collapsed shelters