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US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has urged Israel to immediately allow all necessary humanitarian supplies into Gaza after heavy rain flooded tens of thousands of tents. The body said Israel’s response to the crisis remained “insufficient”, according to BBC World.
The Board of Peace, established to oversee implementation of Trump’s Gaza peace plan, said it recognised steps Israel was considering. Israel’s military agency responsible for coordinating aid into Gaza said it had allowed in tens of thousands of tents and trucks carrying winter supplies, but said reconstruction “can only begin after Hamas fully disarms”.
On Sunday, three children and a woman were killed when a sand embankment collapsed onto tents in the central Gaza Strip.
Most people in Gaza have been displaced by Israel’s military actions. About 65% of the population, or around 1.4 million people, now live in tents or makeshift shelters, the UN says.
Mohammed Jneid, standing soaked in Gaza City, told AFP that heavy rain hit from one side while sewage overflowed onto people from the other, and that the ground and tents could no longer hold up.
“We have nothing left, no bedding, no food, nothing,” he said.
Islam Al Mobayed, sitting inside her tent, told AFP that seven children were there, five of them young.
“This is not life,” she said. “We are exhausted, we are tired of this entire life.”
UN warns shelter stocks in Gaza are exhausted
In a rare criticism of Israel, the Board of Peace said it had urged the Israeli government to authorise the entry of essential goods for temporary shelter and water and sanitation infrastructure.
Delays in approving supplies, the Board said, had “exacerbated the consequences of a foreseeable humanitarian challenge” and delayed the start of decommissioning weapons and transferring Hamas authority to a transitional government. It added that Hamas’s failure to disarm and transfer power had compounded the difficulties facing Gaza’s civilians.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said more than 150,000 tents were outside Gaza, ready to be brought in, but aid efforts were constrained by “Israeli restrictions on the entry of supplies and equipment and funding shortfalls”.
UN humanitarian coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov said on Monday that stocks of essential shelter and winter items inside Gaza had run out.
“Israeli authorities must immediately lift all restrictions on entry of the supplies,” he said, adding: “We have run out of time.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Michal Maayan said on Monday that Israel had introduced a winter plan in recent months in coordination with the Board of Peace and international charities.
According to Cogat, the Israeli military body responsible for aid, the plan has brought in more than 91,000 tents and more than 8,200 trucks carrying tarpaulins, blankets, winter clothing and other equipment. Cogat said it would not allow equipment that could be used for military purposes to enter Gaza.
Maayan accused Hamas of hoarding aid, saying: “Hamas is responsible for the delays in making more progress in the Strip, and winter-related hardship are a consequence of Hamas’s action and policy.”
Hamas and Israel trade accusations over ceasefire terms
In a statement published in Palestinian media, Hamas said the Board of Peace’s comments “present a distorted account of the causes of the disaster”. The group denied responsibility for delays in the ceasefire, citing an August statement by Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators that accused Israel of violations.
Hamas said Israeli restrictions were preventing the entry of materials needed for shelter and recovery. It also urged the Board, as the body implementing the ceasefire, to examine its own “serious shortcoming”.
Under the agreement to end the two-year war, reached in October 2025, Hamas agreed to give up governance and its weapons in exchange for a phased Israeli troop withdrawal from the 60% of Gaza it still occupied. Israel has insisted that Hamas fully disarm before a withdrawal.
The dispute has stalled the next stages of the peace plan, with both sides blaming each other.
The war began after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage.
Israel’s military campaign in response has killed 74,645 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the UN considers reliable. More than 1,600 people have been killed since the ceasefire in October last year.
Israel says six of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza since then.
