<\/p>\n
11 December 2025<\/p>\n
Storm Byron, a severe storm system that triggered flooding in Greece and Cyprus before reaching Gaza\u00a0earlier this week, has now made landfall, bringing heavy rainfall that has already flooded multiple displacement sites and placed\u00a0nearly\u00a0795,000* displaced\u00a0Palestinians at heightened risk. Rainfall is expected to continue in the hours\u00a0ahead,\u00a0further straining conditions for families already living in unsafe shelters.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Heavy\u00a0rain\u00a0has\u00a0begun\u00a0falling across hundreds of displacement sites, overwhelming areas where even moderate rainfall can quickly become dangerous. Despite the ceasefire, displaced Palestinians continue to live in overcrowded areas with little protection against rising water levels.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Since the 10 October ceasefire, IOM has dispatched more than one million shelter items to partners in Gaza, including waterproof tents, thermal blankets, sleeping mats, and tarpaulins. Yet these supplies cannot withstand flooding. Many displacement sites sit on low, debris-filled land with inadequate drainage and waste management, leaving families at heightened risk of disease outbreaks and other public health hazards as the flooding spreads.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPeople in Gaza have lived through loss and fear for far too long,\u201d said IOM Director General Amy Pope. \u201cNow, after this storm made landfall yesterday, families are trying to protect their children with whatever they have. They deserve more than this uncertainty. They deserve safety. Immediate and unhindered access is essential so tools and supplies can reach those who are doing\u00a0everything\u00a0they\u00a0can to\u00a0hold their lives together in these extremely difficult conditions.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Basic tool kits,\u00a0sandbags\u00a0and water pumps,\u00a0as well as construction\u00a0materials\u00a0like timber and plywood,\u00a0remain delayed due to long-standing access restrictions, including limitations on the entry of construction supplies into Gaza. These materials are critical for repairing and reinforcing shelters against continued rainfall\u00a0and mitigating floods in sites.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPalestinians in Gaza are confined within less than 50 per cent of the Strip. Yesterday we\u00a0witnessed\u00a0widespread flooding, and with infrastructure already devastated, the rainfall caused severe damage,\u201d said Haitham Aqel, Emergency and Relief Team Leader for the Palestinian Housing Council, a local relief organization and partner to IOM. \u201cWe used sandbags to create drainage, but many people\u2019s bedding and mattresses were damaged as water entered through worn-out tents.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n IOM\u2019s Needs and Population Monitoring\u00a0(NPM)\u00a0programme, working through site management partners on the ground,\u00a0identified\u00a0more than 140,000 people affected by earlier rains that had already flooded 219 active displacement sites.\u00a0Building on this assessment,\u00a0IOM\u00a0continues to support essential interventions to reduce risks in overcrowded areas, improve layouts and drainage, and help families access critical services.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are doing the best we can, operating in over 120 displacement sites across Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Deir Al Balah, but the needs are overwhelming,\u201d said Mr. Aqel. \u201cWe urgently need heavy machinery to remove rubble, more shelter items, and recovery efforts must begin so Gaza can start to rebuild.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 11 December 2025 Storm Byron, a severe storm system that triggered flooding in Greece and Cyprus before reaching Gaza\u00a0earlier this week, has now made landfall, bringing heavy rainfall that has already flooded multiple displacement sites and placed\u00a0nearly\u00a0795,000* displaced\u00a0Palestinians at heightened risk. Rainfall is expected to continue in the hours\u00a0ahead,\u00a0further straining conditions for families already […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[3653],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2005,5200,1745],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-313637","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-source-international-organization-for-migration","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-humanitarian-relief","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/313637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/313637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313638,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/313637\/revisions\/313638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=313637"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=313637"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=313637"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=313637"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=313637"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=313637"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=313637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}