UN warns Gaza displacement sites at risk of flooding, collapse as winter nears

By Merve Aydogan

HAMILTON, Canada (AA) - The UN on Tuesday warned that displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip could face serious flood and collapse risks as winter approaches, with aid efforts hampered by funding shortfalls and supply restrictions.

Citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a news conference that "we assessed displacement sites hosting over 650 families in Khan Younis, including 160 families staying in a low-lying pit that used to collect rainwater and is now at risk of being flooded with both rain and sewage."

Dujarric said the UN and its partners assessed five other low-lying displacement sites on Monday hosting about 750 people, also in Khan Younis.

"We also assessed a sixth site hosting a number of families on the edge of a cliff overlooking the five low-lying sites," he said. "We are concerned that soil erosion this winter could cause the ground beneath the tents there to collapse."

Across Gaza, partners are undertaking "drainage clearance, sandbagging and ground-levelling to support such communities. But efforts are held back by funding shortfalls and restrictions on the entry of a range of critical supplies."

Dujarric added that shelter partners said that "the supplies currently available are only enough to partially support less than a fifth of the nearly 300,000 families in need of winter shelter assistance."

Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, launched with US support in October 2023, has killed more than 74,000 victims and injured over 175,000, while destroying 90% of civilian infrastructure.

Despite a ceasefire that has been in effect since Oct. 10, 2025, Israel has continued shelling, shooting and demolishing Palestinian structures, further expanding the destruction.

Merve Gül Aydoğan Ağlarcı