Floods Force Gaza to Choose Between Clean Water and Pumping Out Sewage

As Gaza floods overwhelm displacement sites, municipal teams in Al Maghazi refugee camp face a difficult trade-off: Pumping floodwaters out of shelters means taking away fuel needed to supply residents with drinkable water.

The Details

“The diesel we use for these pumps comes from the allocation for the wells that are supposed to pump water,” says municipal engineer Imad Abdel Jawad, and this is at a time when their supply is already insufficient.

Rainstorms swept through Gaza over the weekend of November 7 and 8, overwhelming damaged sewage networks and makeshift shelters. In some tents in Al Maghazi, the water was well over a foot deep, Jawad says.

Floodwater covers the ground around makeshift shelters and tents.

Photograph: Getty Images

For Hanan Saied, 46, the storm soaked the bedding and clothing she shares with her seven children. She lives in a shelter in Al Maghazi with mud walls, cracks, and plastic sheeting covering the roof, which WIRED Middle East visited.

“The house flooded, and stones and mud fell on us,” Saied says. “The bedding was soaked, and the children’s clothes were soaked.”

Her children used buckets to move water away while her eldest son tried to repair the shelter. Saied spent the night holding her daughter, Sara, who she says has asthma, trying to keep her warm.

Gaza’s Government Media Office has said at least 70,000 tents sheltering displaced Palestinians had flooded within 12 hours.

On 8 November, the Israel account on X, run by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs,, “Contrary to popular belief, Israel does not control the weather.” The post did not explicitly mention Gaza floods.

The flooding comes after widespread destruction of Gaza’s housing. An April assessment by the European Union, United Nations, and World Bank found that more than 371,888 housing units had been damaged or destroyed and around 1.9 million people internally displaced, often repeatedly.

By 8 November, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that 1.4 million people—65 percent of Gaza’s population—were living in tents or shelters. Humanitarian partners had received appeals from more than 26,000 households whose shelters or belongings had been damaged.

In Al Maghazi, Jawad describes five displacement sites across the camp’s western and northern areas. Parts sit on low ground where rainwater accumulates without an outlet.

His teams used pumps to move water outside the displacement sites. But the problems extend beneath the streets.

Israeli bombardment has damaged sewage manhole covers in Al Maghazi, Jawad says. Other covers have been stolen or deteriorated over time. The resulting openings allow rainwater to pour into sewage networks unable to accommodate the extra volume, causing wastewater to overflow.

“The sewage networks become unable to accommodate the quantities of sewage in addition to the rainwater that leaks into the manholes because the covers are missing,” he says.

Replacement covers are unavailable locally, while materials needed to fabricate alternatives are scarce and expensive. The municipality cannot afford all the work required. Keeping the water supply running takes priority.

“I consider spending money on maintaining wells or maintaining generators to operate water wells a higher priority than allocating some of that money to maintaining sewage manhole covers,” Jawad says.

Floodwater covers the ground around makeshift shelters in Jabalia refugee camp, Northern Gaza Strip.

These shortages extend across Gaza. In its

November 5 report, OCHA said Israeli authorities continued to impose particularly tight restrictions on engine oil, lubricants, spare parts, and new generators. Systems for pumping floodwater and sewage were already failing.

Restoring more sustainable power supplies, the agency added, depended on Israeli permission to import solar panels, reconnect the electricity grid, and restart Gaza’s power plant.

The Israel Defense Forces did not respond to WIRED Middle East’s request for comment on restrictions affecting the entry of equipment and supplies needed for flood prevention and infrastructure repairs.

Jawad says trucks and earth-moving machinery are needed to bring material to displacement sites where water collects on muddy ground, improving conditions beneath and around tents.

The consequences also reach clinics. Dr Asma Saleh, a general practitioner at the Al Maghazi clinic of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), reports an increase in children presenting with respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses as the rainy season begins.

Saleh says the clinic sees around 120 children daily, including approximately 22 with influenza-like illness diagnosed from symptoms and 13 with gastroenteritis.

“The inhumane living conditions, collapse of infrastructure, the flowing streets contaminated with sewage, and the shortage of medical supplies are all factors that profoundly impact the health care system in Gaza,” she says.

For Saied, the immediate concern is getting Sara through the next storm. Her daughter has more frequent asthma attacks during winter, she says, and the family has neither a nebuliser nor electricity to operate one.

“My older son spent hours repairing our worn shelter using simple tools, but I don’t know what to do during upcoming storms."

This story originally appeared in

WIRED Middle East.