Thousands of Gaza Strip citizens spent a harsh night due to severe storms that uprooted their dilapidated tents and left them in the open trying to gather what remained of those tents to restore them at dawn.

For the third day, Palestine, including the Gaza Strip, is affected by a low-pressure system accompanied by severe storms and heavy rain, according to the Meteorological Department.

These tents are the only shelter left for thousands of citizens after the Israeli occupation destroyed their homes over more than 15 months of genocide and they found no alternative refuge.

Citizens described this night as the "hardest and most difficult" due to the severity of the storms that accompanied the depression, saying: "The mind cannot imagine the difficulties we faced."

Although some tents were flooded and others were torn and blown away, those who lost their homes and their last chance for shelter are renewing their rejection of American calls to seize the Gaza Strip and displace them from it.

Some of them told Anadolu Agency, "Palestinians are like fish and Gaza is their sea. If they leave it, they will die. Therefore, they are steadfast on their land despite displacement and suffering."

The depression has exacerbated the suffering of displaced Palestinians in tents and shelters, where they live in poor humanitarian conditions due to the lack of basic resources and daily necessities.

On the beach in the southern Gaza Strip, Abu Jamal Khalifa gathers the remains of his tent, which was torn apart by severe storms during the night hours, causing large parts of it to fly away.

Khalifa (54 years old) went through about 10 displacement trips during the months of genocide, the last of which was about 6 months ago to the beach under very harsh humanitarian conditions.

“During the night hours, the tent could not withstand the air pressure, so it tore and flew away,” Khalifa says, leaving him and the three families sheltering in the tent out in the open, facing the bitter cold and rain.

He continued, explaining that the winds caused half of the supplies inside the tent, including mattresses and blankets, to fly away.

He explained that throughout his life he had never experienced such a harsh night due to the low pressure system, explaining that the storms carried soft sea sand and scattered it heavily on his children, which made the conditions even more difficult.

He pointed out that the tent's collapse exacerbated their suffering, especially since it was housing his daughter, who had kidney disease, and his son, who suffered from pain in his spine, in addition to his widowed daughter, whose husband was martyred during the genocide.

Despite the severe suffering that burdens the citizen Khalifa, he insists on his adherence to his land, which is located within the area to which they have not yet been allowed to return, and he rejects the displacement plans from it.

Khalifa says: “Despite the destruction of the homes, we will set up tents and live in them. We will not emigrate voluntarily from the Strip. We will not emigrate unless they exterminate us. But to emigrate of our own free will is difficult.”

He continued, saying: "Just as fish live in the water, when they come out they die, and we, the people of Gaza, do not live outside of it."

In the city of Deir al-Balah in the middle of the Strip, an elderly woman (80 years old) who preferred not to publish her name said that she was displaced from the Sheikh Zayed area in the northern governorate.

She added that she spent the night holding onto one of the wooden poles that secured their tent to the sand, saying that the ground seemed to shake due to the storms and winds.

The elderly woman expressed her refusal to emigrate outside the Gaza Strip, noting that she prefers to stay in the cloth tents rather than emigrate abroad.

Despite the destruction and the harsh life in tents, she continues, "We do not leave Gaza. This is our country. We are steadfast in it and we do not accept emigration."

She points out that the Palestinians will rebuild Gaza, albeit slowly, by putting one stone upon another.

In this context, citizen Ahmed Shamali stressed his rejection of all plans for displacement outside the Gaza Strip, calling on the Palestinians to stand firm and stay even if it is in a tent.

In turn, citizen Khaled Al-Ayyoubi says that tents and streets in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood east of Gaza City were flooded with rainwater that accompanied the low pressure system, while tents were blown away.

He added that the severe storms caused the tin sheets that sheltered families to fly away.

Al-Ayyubi explains that the land, due to the destruction of the infrastructure during the months of the genocide and its flooding with rainwater, has become rugged and difficult to walk on.

For his part, a citizen, who preferred not to publish his name, demanded that there be a solution for the displaced people who lost their homes and are living through renewed tragedies with every depression.

He continues: "Our life is tragic, our homes were destroyed, our children were killed and arrested, and nothing is left."

Regarding the American calls for the displacement of Palestinians, he said: “This is a solution that is worse than bad.”

Throughout the months of genocide, citizens took refuge in schools, health centers, playgrounds, and tents made of cloth after the Israeli occupation destroyed their residential areas and homes.

According to the data, the occupation destroyed about 88% of the infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, including homes, hospitals, schools, vital facilities and services.

Between October 7, 2023 and January 19, 2025, the occupation committed genocide in Gaza, leaving more than 159,000 martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 14,000 missing.