The United Nations said heavy rains and flooding in the Gaza Strip have soaked tents and belongings, increased health risks and strained an already precarious humanitarian response.

Spokesperson Farhan said UN teams processed more than 160 flooding alerts in one morning and had assessed more than 16,000 families. He warned that 760 displacement sites hosting roughly 850,000 people are at highest risk of flooding — a figure the UN described as about 40% of Gaza’s population.

The spokesman quoted Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of UNRWA, saying the storm adds "another layer of misery" for people who had already lost everything, and described UNRWA teams pumping sewage and distributing critical items while many of the teams are themselves displaced.

Farhan said the UN and partners have increased winter support, including expanding daily distributions of children's winter kits from 5,000 to 8,000, and deploying mobile pumps and heavy machinery to clear stormwater and sewage. He stressed that scaling up the response requires easing restrictions on humanitarian operations, lifting bans that affect international NGOs and UNRWA, opening more crossings and approving a wider range of relief items.

When asked whether 600 trucks enter Gaza daily, the spokesperson said the UN cannot verify overall truck counts and that while UN truck deliveries have increased since the ceasefire, other bilateral aid arrives via non-UN convoys.

Next steps: the UN said it would press for more crossings, more routes and greater permission for international NGOs and UN agencies to bring equipment and winter supplies into Gaza.