Winter has arrived in Gaza not as a change of season, but as a new and deadly phase of suffering. As heavy rains and freezing winds sweep across the Strip, thousands of displaced Palestinians are facing conditions that turn survival into a daily struggle. For women already living through genocide, repeated displacement and profound loss, the winter storms are pushing life from barely bearable to actively life-threatening.

After months of bombardment, much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble. Homes, schools and hospitals have been destroyed, entire neighbourhoods erased. Most families have been forced to flee multiple times, often under fire, carrying little more than the clothes they were wearing. When they fled, it was summer. Few imagined they would still be displaced as winter set in, sleeping in tents, makeshift shelters or the open air.

In Deir al-Balah, Baraa, a woman displaced from Beit Lahia, explains how winter has exposed the fragility of their situation. “I would like to talk about my suffering during the winter,” she says. “Right now, we’re living in a tent, but it doesn’t belong to us; it belongs to my uncle, and the tent is in a bad situation.”

With no access to proper shelter materials, Baraa and her family have been forced to sacrifice the little they have. “We’ve been using our blankets, which we cover ourselves with, to fix the tent,” she says. “We also lack winter clothes.” Each rainfall worsens the damage, letting cold water pour through the fabric and pooling on the ground where they sleep.

READ: 

© Middle East Monitor