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UN aid chief Tom Fletcher criticises Gaza relief delays as floods hit 70,000 tents
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on 11 November that waiting for an Israeli government is no reason to delay Gaza winter aid, after floods hit about 70,000 tents. Gaza's health ministry says 1,613 people have died since the October 2025 truce.
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The United Nations humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, criticised delays in delivering winter supplies to Gaza on Wednesday, 11 November 2026, and said that waiting for a new Israeli government to be formed is not an acceptable reason to hold up aid. His remarks came after a storm flooded about 70,000 tents over the weekend, according to Gaza's government media office. The Board of Peace, which oversees President Donald Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza, had urged Israel on Monday to let in essential aid. Gaza's health ministry says 1,613 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect in October 2025. This report is for information only.
What the UN aid chief said
Fletcher said foreign ministers and partners had warned him that progress would be hard until after Israeli elections, and that the UN is now being told to wait for the formation of a government. He said the UN had warned for months about the need for winter supplies, including shelter materials, warm clothes, blankets and safe heating, and that delays, blockages and funding cuts put the population at great risk. He called for all of Gaza's crossings to be opened, and not only one, and for humanitarian groups and commercial markets to be allowed to operate.
The Board of Peace made a related appeal on Monday. It asked Israel to allow in materials for temporary shelter, water and sanitation, waste management, drainage and sewage removal, and to honour the Sharm El Sheikh Humanitarian Protocol. Israel said it is committed to Mr Trump's plan and blamed Hamas for the lack of progress. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas would use every dual-use item to strengthen its military. Aid groups criticise the category of dual-use items, which Israel has applied to tarpaulins, tent poles and toilets. The Israeli military's aid-coordination agency, COGAT, said it had allowed in thousands of aid lorries and gave no specific figure, while UN figures show a decline in aid entering Gaza since January.
The floods and the numbers
The storm that hit at the weekend flooded about 70,000 tents within 12 hours, killed at least five people and caused about $3 million in damage, according to Gaza's government media office. Gaza's Civil Defence logged more than 2,100 distress calls by Monday and warned that over 2,000 buildings risk collapse. On 8 November a sand embankment collapsed onto tents at a displacement site south-west of Deir el-Balah, and five bodies were recovered.
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Tents flooded in 12 hours | About 70,000 | Gaza government media office |
| Family shelters destroyed | More than 6,000 | UN report, 10 November |
| Family shelters damaged | 17,400 | UN report, 10 November |
| Households with no shelter | More than 3,900 | UN report, 10 November |
| People living in tents, makeshift shelters or damaged buildings | About 1.7 million of 2.2 million | UNICEF estimate |
| People in flood-risk areas | Nearly 1 million | UN agencies |
Nearly 400,000 people live in areas where flooding is extremely likely. Aid claims differ by source. Gaza's Crossings and Borders Authority said no aid trucks or commercial goods entered on 6 and 7 November, and that five trucks of cooking gas came in on 8 November. The UN's humanitarian office said Israel notified it on 1 November that it would suspend shipments from Egypt, and aid groups warn that the number of daily cooked meals could fall from about 600,000 to 330,000 as a result. Israel disputes the picture and points to the lorries it has allowed in.
The truce and the toll
The ceasefire agreement took effect in October 2025, but Israeli attacks have continued. The health ministry says 20 more Palestinians were killed in the past week, bringing the total since the ceasefire to 1,613 as of 9 November. The Israeli military says its strikes target individuals it describes as military operatives linked to Hamas. The total number killed since the war began in October 2023 is more than 74,600, according to the health ministry.
Local reporting names some of those killed in the days around the storm. A 16-year-old girl, Rimas al-Madhoun, died on 3 November in a strike on a tent in Gaza City. Adnan al-Qirnawi, 12, was shot dead east of Bureij on 5 November, and Noura Sheikh al-Eid was killed by tank fire in al-Mawasi the same day, hours after her daughter left for treatment in Egypt. The Israeli military has said its strikes are directed at operatives of Hamas, and it has not commented on these individual cases in the accounts available. The names show that the figures above are individual lives, and that people in the tents face both the weather and the continuing violence.
Hamas has urged mediators and the Board of Peace not to link reconstruction to political or security conditions. The dispute over what may enter Gaza, and when, is therefore bound up with the wider political dispute over the plan. The next measurable signs will be the number of trucks that cross in the coming days, whether shelter materials are among them, and whether more crossings open. These figures are published by the UN and by the crossings authority, and they do not always agree.
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About the Author
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Amita Sahani
Staff Writer
Amita Sahani writes for Wirony. Every story under this byline is reviewed and approved by an editor before it is published, and corrections are made openly.
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