Ola Almadhoun is a Palestinian journalist and communications specialist based in Washington, D.C. With firsthand experience covering multiple wars in Gaza, she previously worked with UNRWA and U.N. Radio before joining the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa) in the U.S. (LinkedIn) (X)
Winter in Gaza has become a life-threatening nightmare, with an infant dying on Dec. 11 of exposure to extreme cold in what has become an ugly but familiar season cycle for Palestinians. And yet, it is not nature, but the political conditions undergirding the so-called "ceasefire," that should be blamed for this additional failure of humanity. After two years of war, widespread destruction that has dismantled the foundations of civilian life and a suffocating Israeli blockade that prevents the entry of essential materials, displaced families now face freezing temperatures in conditions offering almost no protection. For women and girls in particular, winter has become a season of danger, deprivation and systemic neglect.
Gaza's infrastructure—including housing, water, sanitation, electricity and healthcare—has been shattered by repeated Israeli bombardment. Under the ongoing blockade imposed by the Israeli authorities, basic materials needed to repair or winterize shelters remain severely restricted. As a result, more than one million women and girls uprooted from their homes are forced to survive in fragile tents that collapse under the first heavy rain.
Early-season storms recently flooded the shelters of an estimated 13,000 families, many female-headed or with adolescent girls, collapsing entire tents and destroying their limited belongings. These events were not unexpected, constituting a common shelter issue facing conflict-affected communities around the globe. This predictable pattern, in which winter weather exposes the fragility of makeshift camps that cannot be rebuilt or reinforced, repeats because Israel blocks construction materials from entering Gaza.
For women and girls in particular, winter has become a season of danger, deprivation and systemic neglect.
- Ola Almadhoun
Across displacement areas, rain does not simply fall. It tears through plastic sheeting, collapses makeshift structures and transforms the ground into deep, contaminated mud. Floodwater mixes with sewage, posing dangerous health risks while making basic movement treacherous. Families spend hours attempting to drain their tents, only for new storms to undo their efforts.
Tens of thousands live in primitive, open-air "tents" that can only be described as little more than tarpaulins and makeshift support beams, with no flooring, insulation or drainage, while more than 77,000 displaced people crowd into 86 U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) shelters. Gaza currently requires more than 300,000 additional shelters for people still displaced and who will likely remain displaced through the winter.
The impact of the crisis falls heaviest on women and girls. When a tent floods, they lose not only physical protection but the minimal privacy they rely on for basic safety and hygiene. More than 57,000 women now head their households alone, caring for children in overcrowded, unsanitary and exposed environments where winter creates conditions all the more unbearable and degrading.
During the war, women have been forced to cut up old clothing for improvised sanitary pads, change behind blankets or wait until nightfall for a moment of privacy—struggles that have only intensified as displacement has continued. Damp tents make menstrual hygiene nearly impossible, heightening the risk of infection. Flooded toilets, contaminated pathways and the absence of functioning sanitation systems deter girls from leaving their tents, isolating them from healthcare, safe spaces and aid distribution. For many adolescents, the lack of private areas and basic supplies turns daily life into a source of danger and humiliation, deepening an already profound loss of dignity.
Shortages of hygiene supplies and clean water force women to wait for hours—often in unsafe and overcrowded areas—for a few liters of water or a small amount of bread. Nearly 700,000 women and girls of reproductive age lack access to menstrual hygiene products, turning daily survival into a continuous struggle against cold, contamination and exposure.
A collapsing health system compounds these risks. Hospitals damaged by airstrikes operate with minimal resources as winter illnesses spread quickly through damp, unheated tents. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of rising meningitis and other respiratory infections in such conditions. In previous winters, newborns and infants died from hypothermia—a stark reminder that exposure, cold and the denial of essential resources produce preventable deaths, particularly among the most vulnerable.
Many mothers describe staying awake through entire nights, holding their children close as heavy rain and freezing winds push through soaked blankets and torn walls.
- Ola Almadhoun
Many mothers describe staying awake through entire nights, holding their children close as heavy rain and freezing winds push through soaked blankets and torn walls. This constant cycle of fear, sleeplessness and physical strain has a profound impact on their mental well-being. Many displaced women face extreme psychological stress as they struggle to survive these conditions while attempting to maintain some sense of stability for their families. Unable to protect their daughters' privacy, keep their children warm or guarantee safety for even a single night, mothers carry invisible wounds that U.N. Women warns cannot be healed by food or water alone. These women require sustained psychosocial support that they are simply not receiving.
In this regard, broader humanitarian assistance remains far below needs. While more aid trucks have entered Gaza since the lull in fighting began, the supply of tents and shelter materials is critically insufficient. More than one million displaced people remain vulnerable to winter storms as emergency agencies struggle to repair damaged stormwater systems and replace shelters destroyed by recent rains. Israeli restrictions on fuel severely limit heating, cooking, water pumping and medical operations.
These conditions are not acts of nature. They are the inevitable consequence of war, blockade and Israel's intentional disruption and destruction of essential services that would prevent winter's evolution into an even worse humanitarian emergency. Under international law, Israel is obliged as the occupying power to allow humanitarian aid to flow freely into Gaza and to respect the work of the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations. By destroying civilian infrastructure, restricting essential materials and limiting humanitarian access, Israeli authorities are failing to meet these obligations. The result is a pattern of preventable harm that disproportionately affects women, children and the most vulnerable.
Protecting Gaza's displaced population from the dangers of winter requires immediate, unhindered humanitarian access, not only for food and medicine, but also for winterized shelters, fuel, clean water, sanitation supplies and essential medical support. Women and girls cannot be expected to survive winter behind plastic sheets, under collapsed tents or amid sewage-contaminated floodwater. Their safety and dignity depend on removing the barriers that prevent lifesaving aid from reaching them.
Until these restrictions are lifted, winter will continue to claim lives, exposing a profound failure to safeguard a civilian population that has lost everything due to Israel's war on the Strip.
The views and positions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of DAWN.
