[News] Night of rain and ruin: Struggle to survive in Mawasi Khan Yunis

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Reports <https://english.palinfo.com/category/reports/>
Night of rain and ruin: Struggle to survive in Mawasi Khan Yunis

Friday 12-December-2025
<https://english.palinfo.com/reports/2025/12/12/353501/#>
<https://english.palinfo.com/reports/2025/12/12/353501/#>
<https://english.palinfo.com/reports/2025/12/12/353501/#>
<https://english.palinfo.com/reports/2025/12/12/353501/#>

GAZA, (PIC)

In displacement camps of al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza
Strip, long rows of worn-out, tightly packed tents stretch along muddy
streets.

The early hours of Wednesday night saw heavy rain hammering the thin fabric
roofs. The soft patter of raindrops sounds like a scary monster.

Mahmoud al-Haddad, a Palestinian man in his mid-thirties, helplessly
watched water seep through every corner of the tattered roof of his tent in
al-Mawasi.

After his home was destroyed during the war, Mahmoud had to set up the tent
as a temporary shelter for the family. But it failed to prevent water from
pooling inside and soak mattresses and clothes.

Mahmoud wondered how he might save what remained of his family’s belongings
after destruction forced them out of their home.

For their part, women in neighboring tents tightened the frayed ropes of
their shelter, and children sat on the damp ground watching water leak into
their tents. That’s how fragile a shelter can be.

Water outpaced Mahmoud’s effort in lifting clothes. As his two sons, Hamza
and Islam, began shivering from the cold and water streamed in from every
side, he recalls, “I tried to lift the blankets and hold the kids, but the
water was faster… I felt like everything was falling apart.”

Within minutes, the tent’s rear support gave way under the pressure,
causing one corner to collapse completely. The family’s living space
quickly turned into a pool of mud. The children trembled, struggling to
move across the muddy ground.

Neighbors hurried to help Mahmoud, but with every step, another piece of
clothing, food, or a simple household item disappeared into the sludge.
Such objects, once giving the family a fragile sense of stability, are now
gone.

By the morning, the camp looked as if it had just survived a small-scale
disaster: fallen tents, torn nylon covers, and scents of damp fabric mixed
with the fuel burned overnight for warmth.

Mahmoud didn’t just lose his items, he lost what they symbolized. His
children’s notebooks, drawings, and school assignments were soaked through.

In an exhausted voice he said, “The hardest moment was seeing the
notebooks… even the simplest things they have are gone.”

Despite everything, Mahmoud worked with his neighbors to rebuild a flimsy
tent from torn nylon and old wood, trying to shield his children from the
cold, water, and mud that fill their days. He says they are “not asking for
luxury, just a roof that protects the kids for one night without fear.”

His story mirrors that of thousands in Gaza’s camps, where around 250,000
families endure harsh winter conditions in inadequate shelters, waiting for
even the smallest sign of assistance.

On Thursday, an infant died inside her family’s tent in al-Mawasi due to
severe cold caused by the polar storm.

The Director of the Ministry of Health in Gaza highlighted the death of
baby, Rahaf Abu Jazar, pointing to the extreme fragility of living and
health conditions in the camps.

Meanwhile, Civil Defense reported receiving more than 2,500 distress calls
within 24 hours due to the storm, adding that they carried out 32
operations within 12 hours mostly for flooded tents.

Spokesman of Civil Defense Mahmoud Basal said that available resources do
not meet even the minimum needs of the population, warning of catastrophic
consequences as the storm reached its peak.

Basal stressed that tents are not a humanitarian solution and only deepen
the suffering of displaced families, calling on the international community
to urgently provide mobile homes.

“A three-story home belonging to the Al-Baghdadi family in the Al-Nasser
neighborhood of northern Gaza collapsed,” Civil Defense reported, adding
that entire camps in Khan Yunis, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat, and Gaza City
flooded.

For his part, Ismail al-Thawabta, Director of the Government Media Office,
said that most tents are no longer suitable for living and that the rains
have significantly worsened people’s suffering.

Thawabta indicated a need for more than 300,000 new tents, noting that 93%
of existing tents, around 125,000 out of 135,000, are uninhabitable.
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