DUBAI — His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has directed the distribution of tents to shelter 50,000 people in the Gaza Strip as the rainy winter season sets in, the state-run WAM news agency reported on Tuesday, November 10, 2026. The directive is part of efforts to support Palestinians facing severe weather conditions and the risk of flash floods triggered by winter rainfall.

Source: WAM via Virgin Radio Dubai, Nov 10, 2026

The tents are being delivered to Gaza and distributed to several areas across the Strip under the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives foundation, in collaboration with Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, according to the Dubai Media Office announcement carried by WAM. Operation Chivalrous Knight 3 is the UAE's integrated humanitarian initiative for Gaza, launched on November 5, 2023 under the directives of UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, covering humanitarian, relief, medical and food assistance alongside shelter.

Source: WAM via Lana Time / Emirates247, Nov 10, 2026

Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE President, said on social media on Tuesday that the 'painful scenes of the people of Gaza facing the cold of winter and rain in tents that do not protect them from the harsh conditions embody the extent of the ongoing human suffering'. He said the urgent directive from Sheikh Mohammed came as an extension of the UAE's established humanitarian approach, adding: 'The UAE will remain present with its humanitarian giving, faithful to its commitment to the brotherly Palestinian people.'

Source: Voice of Emirates, Nov 10, 2026

50,000People the new UAE tents are meant to shelter in Gaza
70,000Tents local authorities said were flooded in the first hours after heavy rain began on Saturday
5 Nov 2023Launch date of Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, the UAE aid operation delivering the tents

Why the tents are urgent now

Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are facing the danger of torrential rain in makeshift camps across Gaza. According to local authorities, at least 70,000 tents had been flooded in the first hours after heavy rain began on Saturday, WAM's report said. Heavy rain late on Sunday washed away a rocky sand bank abutting a camp south of Deir al-Balah, killing a woman and three children and injuring six others, Reuters reported earlier this week.

Source: WAM via Virgin Radio Dubai, Nov 10, 2026; Reuters, Nov 9, 2026

The flooding emergency has been building for days, and Trump's Board of Peace said this week that Israel was moving too slowly as floods ravaged Gaza — our earlier report covered that flood emergency and the argument over the pace of relief in full. Read the earlier Gaza flood emergency report

The shelter order also lands in the same week that UNICEF said Israel's COGAT agency had rejected a 3 million dollar plan to repair Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan stormwater basin, warning the sewage-contaminated basin could overflow in heavy rain and endanger nearby residents through flooding and disease — a separate Reuters report on Tuesday. Together the two developments underline how exposed Gaza's displaced population is as winter sets in: damaged drainage, flooded tents and too little intact shelter.

Source: Reuters via Duke FM, Nov 10, 2026

What is solid

  • Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum directed tents to shelter 50,000 people in Gaza, delivered via his Global Initiatives foundation with Operation Chivalrous Knight 3 — WAM, Nov 10
  • Local authorities said at least 70,000 tents were flooded in the first hours of Saturday's heavy rain — WAM report
  • A woman and three children were killed when heavy rain washed away a sand bank by a camp south of Deir al-Balah late on Sunday — Reuters

What is only claimed

  • How quickly the 50,000-person shelter capacity will actually reach families on the ground — the announcement confirms delivery and distribution across several areas, but gives no completion date or area-by-area breakdown
  • The UAE's description of itself as the largest provider of humanitarian aid to Gaza — that is the UAE's own characterisation of its aid operation, reported here as its claim

What happens next: distribution is under way across several areas of the Strip through Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, according to the announcement, with winter rain and flash-flood risk continuing. For the lakhs of Punjabi and Indian workers based in the UAE and across the Gulf, the order is also a sign of how directly the Emirates' leadership is tying its Gaza relief effort to the worsening winter weather — and aid agencies say the need will grow if damaged drainage and flooded camps are not fixed before heavier rain arrives.