RAMALLAH — The United Nations and the Palestinian government warned jointly on Monday that the coming winter could turn Gaza's shelter crisis into a catastrophe, and urged the immediate lifting of restrictions on humanitarian supplies, dpa reported. The warning was delivered at a joint press conference in Ramallah, in the West Bank, by Palestinian Social Development Minister Samah Hamad — who is also acting minister of state for relief affairs — and Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Source: dpa, Nov 9 2026

Hamad put the full scale on the record: more than 65 per cent of families in Gaza are living in tents or temporary shelters, more than 370,000 housing units have been damaged or destroyed, and thousands of families remain in around 4,000 buildings at risk of collapse with no safer alternative. She said the crisis stems not only from a lack of funding but from restrictions on supplies — about 30 per cent of the relief and shelter items prepared for the winter response remain stranded at border crossings, and only an estimated 10 per cent of winter supplies are arriving compared with previous years. She called for all crossings to be opened.

Source: Palestinian government / UN joint press conference, reported Nov 9 2026

Alakbarov said the situation is a human-made crisis, not a weather event, citing devastated homes and infrastructure, damaged drainage systems, Israeli restrictions and insufficient funding. Stocks of tents inside Gaza are nearly depleted, he said, while the 150,000 tents bought by aid partners wait outside. He urged Israel to urgently lift import restrictions and to allow the population access to more areas of the territory with safer shelter, and he stressed that access cannot replace funding, nor funding access.

Source: dpa, Nov 9 2026

Monday's warning follows the winter storm that flooded tents across Gaza last week, when distress calls poured in from displaced families as rainwater swamped temporary shelters. Read the earlier storm report

Israel's answer: a winter plan is under way

The Israeli military said it is carrying out a winter preparedness plan in coordination with the Board of Peace — the body established by US President Donald Trump — and in cooperation with the United Nations, international organisations and donor countries. It said more than 91,000 tents and more than 8,200 trucks carrying tarpaulins, blankets, winter clothing and other aid had already been brought into the Gaza Strip, alongside projects to improve water and sanitation and approvals for vaccines, mobile clinics, medicines and medical equipment. The military also stressed the need to prevent equipment from being, in its words, exploited to rebuild the capabilities of terrorist organisations. The Board of Peace separately described significant humanitarian progress on Monday but called the steps taken so far insufficient.

Source: dpa / Israeli military statement, Nov 9 2026

What happens next

The test is now deliveries, not statements. Aid officials say the stranded tents and shelter items must cross into Gaza before colder rain arrives, and that families in flood-prone sites and in buildings at risk of collapse need safer ground to move to. Plan International warned the same day that more than half a million children in Gaza face winter flooding, cold and unsafe shelter. For readers in Punjab and the diaspora, Gaza's winter is also a remittance-and-relatives story: families with kin in the Gulf and the wider region watch the crossings because what enters in the next few weeks decides how displaced families sleep through the winter.