The Abu Asi family huddled together inside their small tent insouthern Gaza's Khan Younis, adjusting their blankets and looking for a comfortable place to sleep as winds tore through the city and heavy rain fell.
The family of seven had placed plastic containers to catch the falling rain, but the downpour came Friday night while the children were asleep, making its way inside and soaking their clothes and beds.
Asthe middle of winter arrivesfor the enclave's 2 million residents, such makeshift shelters are struggling to keep the weather at bay while humanitarian groups say aid remains insufficient, withtents ripped apartor blown away, leaving Palestinians exposed.
"Our tent does not protect anything, neither our bedding nor our children," their mother, Nida'a Abu Asi, told NBC News as her husband stood barefoot in the cold, trying to remove the water from inside the tent. "We were completely flooded."
Gaza's Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said Saturday that storms in recent days had caused "significant damage, particularly to tents erected on the beach."
"Thousands of tents belonging to displaced people in the Gaza Strip were damaged or destroyed by the current storm, which brought heavy rain and strong winds," he added.
He said that "recurring storms are turning into humanitarian disasters," citing "Israel's prevention of the entry of building materials and its obstruction of reconstruction efforts, leaving residents in unsafe tents."
Israel has long upheld a ban on construction supplies entering Gaza, arguing they serve a "dual" civilian-military use.
While a fragile ceasefire remains in place, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are living in makeshift tentsafter two years of Israeli strikesdestroyed key infrastructure, leaving hundreds of thousands of people crowded into areas with almost no toilets, drainage or sanitation.
Two-month-old Muhammad Wissam Abu Harbid died Saturday due to the extreme cold, Palestinian health officials said, bringing the total number of infant deaths from the cold since the beginning of winter to four.
"Too many people in Gaza are still barely surviving," the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) posted on X Sunday, saying aid was still being restricted.
"Displaced families are exhausted, hungry, and cold," it said.
COGAT, the Israeli body in charge of humanitarian aid in Gaza, said on X Friday that over 430,000 tents and tarpaulins had been taken into Gaza, with over 4,000 trucks carrying blankets and warm clothes.
"We will continue expanding our efforts, coordinating winter-related items upon requests from the organizations," it said.
Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general, told journalists in New York on Thursday that scaling up efforts remained a "critical priority," with the entry of essential supplies still being denied.
"These are people trying to survive winter in extremely fragile conditions," he said.
Palestinians are spending their third winter displaced, said Sam Rose, acting director of Gaza affairs at UNRWA, adding that insufficient items for shelter had entered the enclave.
"Things are better than bombs falling out of the sky," he told NBC News. "But when you've got a population that's been on its knees for years, whose nutrition has been severely undermined, they're not starting from scratch. They're already massively weakened and degraded."
While Gazans may no longer be living "in constant fear of death," he said, "the levels of suffering are pretty horrendous."
The dispute over winter aid comes as Israel suspended over two dozen humanitarian organizations on Jan. 1 for failing to meet its new rules to vet international organizations working in Gaza.
Israel accused Doctors Without Borders, one of the enclave's largest health organizations, of failing to clarify the roles of some staff whom Israel accused of cooperation with Hamas and other militant groups. Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs said around 25 organizations, or 15%, of the NGOs working in Gaza did not have their permits renewed.
International organizations have said Israel's rules are arbitrary and could endanger staff.
Rose said newly suspended organizations were going through the same process as UNRWA, which wasbanned from operating in Gaza last yearover Israeli claims the group had been infiltrated by Hamas, which UNRWA denies.
"You're taking away decades and decades of expertise and community trust in an environment of complete uncertainty," Rose added. "Things will get even worse."
The Civil Defense ministry has forecast more rain and strong winds for Monday and Tuesday, warning those living in tents, especially those on muddy ground or the beach, to take precautions.
Back in Khan Younis, Asaad Abu Shaab, a 52-year-old father of a family of 13, digs a trench outside his tent, hoping to channel the water away from his home.
"The tent collapsed on my daughters and sons during the night," he said. "We had no choice but to flee to another tent belonging to our neighbors."
As wind continues to pound the camp, a wooden pole delicately holds up the tarpaulin keeping him dry.
"This is a situation no human being can endure," he said.