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From late November onwards, flooding, heavy wind and rainfall across the Gaza Strip further exacerbated already fragile living conditions for thousands of displaced individuals residing in overcrowded displacement sites. As winter conditions intensified, repeated rainfall, lack of drainage systems, and saturated ground conditions increased the risk of shelter damage, site flooding, and heightened protection concerns for already vulnerable groups. These conditions continue to challenge the coping capacities of displaced households already navigating limited access to essential services.
To support intersectoral winterization planning and improved understanding of site level vulnerabilities, the Site Management Cluster (SMC) with IOM NPM team conducted an analysis of the flooding risk across all known sites by assigning site locations to flooding impact zones. These zones were defined using the Flood Risk Map developed jointly by IOM and Acacia Water in December 2024, which applies a weighted analysis of terrain depressions, relative elevation, drainage pathways, and previously recorded inundation areas. The resulting risk layers, particularly the orange and red zones—indicate areas where flooding is more likely to occur.
A total of 912 out of 1,474 displacement sites were identified to be in predicted flood-risk zones. Collectively, these sites were hosting approximately 987,101 individuals. The largest number of at-risk sites were identified in Khan Younis governorate, where over 42% of sites were categorized as flood prone.
Beginning on 30 November, the Site Management Cluster initiated remote phone-based assessments to verify the conditions in the sites, collect data on required flood risk mitigation actions, and to understand flooding impacts. This exercise was complemented by situational ‘alerts’ submitted by SMC partners to provide immediate information on acute flooding incidents in sites, as well as information collected through OCHA led community reporting.
The remote calling exercise continued throughout the winter season with a total of 345 sites surveyed, where in sites that fell within a predicted flood-risk zone were contacted to document any incident or impacts of flooding and to inform response. Given the winter and peak rainfall period in Gaza typically extends from November through March, sites were contacted at different points throughout the season, and only a sample of all at-risk sites were reached, these findings do not represent the full extent of flooding across all sites in Gaza. It can be assumed that the total number of affected sites and displaced individuals impacted by flooding is far greater than what has been recorded through this exercise.