Two million people in Gaza still need shelter help as a second winter of rain and flooding arrives

18 October 2026

Around two million people in Gaza still need shelter assistance, according to the International Organization for Migration, as rain has already begun and families prepare for a second winter in tents and damaged buildings. Displaced residents are filling empty World Food Programme flour sacks with sand to build barriers against rainwater. Karl Baker, the organisation's regional crisis coordinator for Gaza, speaking from Amman, said funding had arrived late and was not at the scale needed to support an estimated 1.8 to 1.9 million people requiring shelter assistance. Tents in Gaza typically last only about six months and are often destroyed or abandoned when families are displaced again. More than 4,000 buildings are reported to be at risk of collapse, and only around 30 per cent of Gaza is now accessible to most people. Supplies are routed from countries including China, India and Pakistan through Jordan, Egypt and Israel.