Gaza floods leave 350,000 affected as UN humanitarian chief demands aid access
Australia, Canada, Italy and the United Kingdom have urged Israel to allow immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access throughout Gaza, highlighting that recent floods have “brought further suffering” for Palestinians living there.
The countries’ foreign ministers co-signed Sunday’s joint statement , the latest international warning about the dire humanitarian situation in the besieged territory.
“People in Gaza desperately need shelter and humanitarian assistance,” the statement said. “Yet 150,000 tents and other vital supplies are being held at the border and prevented from entering Gaza.”
For years, Israel has restricted entry and exports into Gaza, home to more than 2 million people.
But since the start of its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, Israel has placed the Palestinian territory under a full-scale blockade, limiting access to even essential supplies like food and water.
Under the Geneva Convention, denying civilians access to humanitarian aid can constitute a war crime.
“We today urge the Government of Israel to stop the delays now and allow immediate, rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access throughout Gaza,” Sunday’s statement said.
Heavy rain this month swept away tens of thousands of tents in the territory, leaving many without shelter.
“This situation is entirely reversible”, Sunday’s statement said, “and there is still time to act before the winter fully sets in”.
More than 1.9 million people have been displaced in Gaza, according to the United Nations, many of them suffering displacement multiple times.
As of November 1, the Global Shelter Cluster, a humanitarian organisation that coordinates with the Red Cross and the UN, estimated that Gaza residents need at least 1.7 million mattresses and 121,000 tents to face this season’s cold, rainy weather.
During Israel’s genocidal war, entire neighbourhoods and cities were levelled. Some of the structures that remain are unstable.
In September, at least 20 people were killed when a building they were sheltering in collapsed.
Shelter is only one factor in the ongoing humanitarian crisis, though.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza have been plunged into poverty since Israel began its genocidal war. The price of basic goods has soared as incomes have shrunk due to the war and Israel’s tightened siege.
Sunday’s statement follows a similar appeal from the UN’s Humanitarian Country Team of the Occupied Palestinian Territory on Friday.
“The devastating impact of the latest rainstorm in Gaza was preventable,” the team wrote.
“Children and adults were killed, critical services suspended, and thousands of family shelters flooded, swept away, or torn apart – not by the storm alone, but by policy decisions.”
The European Union also released a statement on Saturday, expressing “grave concern” over the humanitarian crisis.
It urged Israel to “allow immediate, unimpeded access” to humanitarian aid and “reopen all Gaza border crossings”.
Sunday’s joint appeal also called on all parties to “implement the Comprehensive Plan for Gaza”, a plan unveiled in 2025 that called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
But attacks have continued, including on Thursday, when an Israeli air strike on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital killed six Palestinians.
Israel is the subject of an ongoing genocide case before the International Court of Justice, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, have been issued arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court.
They have been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
