The Board of Peace, the US-created body set up under President Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan, warned on Monday that severe flooding in the Gaza Strip has become an "immediate humanitarian emergency" and accused both Israel and Hamas of failing to honour their commitments in the stalled peace process.

Source: Anadolu via The Library Media

"The situation no longer represents simply a threat posed by the approaching winter, but an immediate humanitarian emergency," the Board said in a statement published on X, as reported by Anadolu. Severe seasonal flooding over the past two days inundated tens of thousands of tents and makeshift shelters, leaving displaced families exposed to cold and increasingly unsafe conditions.

The Board said expedited entry and distribution of essential shelter, sanitation, drainage and other winter supplies is essential to protect lives, and it urged the Israeli government to authorise materials for temporary shelter, water and sanitation infrastructure, waste management, drainage and sewage removal, in line with Israel's commitments under the Sharm El-Sheikh Humanitarian Protocol.

The Board acknowledged steps Israel says it is considering through COGAT, the Israeli military body that coordinates aid deliveries, but said the response remained "insufficient". Al-Monitor, reporting an Agence France-Presse account, said the Board called on Israel to act immediately to authorise and facilitate the entry of all necessary winter and humanitarian supplies.

Israel points to tents and trucks already delivered

Shortly before the Board's statement, Israel's military said more than 91,000 tents and over 8,200 trucks carrying tarps, blankets, winter clothing and other supplies had entered Gaza since the start of the ceasefire. The Israel Defense Forces said it was pursuing a winter preparedness plan with the Board of Peace and in cooperation with the United Nations, international organisations and donor countries, and that COGAT had approved over 850 requests covering tens of thousands of trucks of winter supplies — while saying roughly half of the approved equipment had yet to be transferred, partly for logistical and budgetary reasons it said were unrelated to Israel.

Demands on Hamas, and a warning to both sides

The Board also directed demands at Hamas, calling on it to fulfil its commitments under the peace plan, including laying down its weapons and transferring governing authority to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. It urged the United Nations, its agencies and international donors to coordinate urgently to mobilise resources and operational support for Gaza's immediate winterisation needs.

The Board warned that further delays in carrying out the peace plan's commitments could have serious consequences for Gaza's civilian population and for the prospects of lasting peace, and said parties failing to meet their obligations would bear responsibility for the consequences.

What the flooding has done on the ground

Heavy rain since Friday flooded tens of thousands of tents across Gaza, the Hamas-run government media office said, putting the figure at about 70,000 tents flooded within 12 hours and initial damage at about $3 million. Gaza's civil defence service said water reached up to 1.5 metres in some places and that its responders could answer only about 10 percent of the 2,100 distress calls received, according to BBC reporting.

Source: BBC News

On Sunday, a rain-soaked sand embankment collapsed onto tents in central Gaza, killing four people including three children, the Hamas-run health ministry said; other reports put the deaths in the flooding at at least five. Oxfam said six people — a mother, her two children and three other children from the same family — were killed in the collapse, and that flooding had displaced around 100,000 people. Those figures are attributed to the authorities and aid groups reporting them and have not been independently settled.

Gaza authorities, for their part, criticised what they called the Board of Peace's "complete absence" as the floods took lives across the Strip — a charge that underlines how contested the Board's own role has become, months after it was created to oversee the ceasefire's next phase.

Awaaz Punjab has been following the winter flooding in Gaza, including the United Nations' warning for the Strip's displaced families. Read: UN winter warning for Gaza

What happens next

Aid agencies say Gaza needs far more shelter than has arrived — civil defence officials have cited a need for at least 300,000 tents, while UN agencies estimate roughly 950,000 displaced people live in flood-exposed areas. With more winter rain expected, the Board's statement sets up a direct test: whether Israel speeds up entry of shelter and drainage supplies, whether Hamas moves on the governance and disarmament commitments the Board named, and whether donors deliver the winterisation support the Board requested.