Winter rain floods Gaza camps as Netanyahu heads for US meeting

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Winter rain lashed the Gaza Strip over the weekend, flooding camps with ankle-deep puddles as Palestinians displaced by two years of war attempted to stay dry in tents frayed by months of use.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled for an expected meeting on Monday with U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida about the second phase of the ceasefire. The first phase that took effect on Oct. 10 was meant to bring a surge in humanitarian aid for Gaza, including shelter.

Netanyahu made no public statement as he departed.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, blankets and mattresses were soaked and clay ovens meant for cooking were swamped. Children wearing flip-flops and light clothing waded through puddles as some people used shovels to try to push water out of tents.

"We drowned last night,” said Majdoleen Tarabein, who was displaced from Rafah in southern Gaza. “Puddles formed, and there was a bad smell. The tent flew away. We don’t know what to do or where to go.”

She showed blankets and other items in the tent soaked and covered in mud as she and family members tried to wring them dry by hand.

“When we woke up in the morning, we found that the water had entered the tent,” said Eman Abu Riziq, also displaced in Khan Younis. “These are the mattresses — they are all completely soaked.” She said her family is still reeling from her husband’s recent death, and is further drained by the constant struggle to stay dry.

At least 12 people, including a 2-week-old infant, have died since Dec. 13 from hypothermia or weather-related collapses of war-damaged homes, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government.

Emergency workers have warned people not to stay in damaged buildings because they could collapse. But with much of the territory in rubble, there are few places to escape the rain. The United Nations in July estimated that almost 80% of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged.

Since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began, 414 people have been killed and 1,142 wounded in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry. The overall Palestinian death toll from the war is at least 71,266. The ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its count, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community.

Aid deliveries into Gaza are falling far short of the amount called for under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire, according to aid organizations and an Associated Press analysis of the Israeli military’s figures.

The Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid said in the past week that 4,200 trucks with aid entered Gaza, plus eight garbage trucks to assist with sanitation, as well as tents and winter clothing. It refused to elaborate on the number of tents; aid groups have said the need far outstrips the number that have entered.

Since the ceasefire began, approximately 72,000 tents and 403,000 tarps have entered, according to the Shelter Cluster, an international coalition of aid providers led by the Norwegian Refugee Council.

“Harsh winter weather is compounding more than two years of suffering. People in Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents and among ruins. There is nothing inevitable about this. Aid supplies are not being allowed in at the scale required,” Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the top U.N. group overseeing aid in Gaza, wrote on social media.

Though the ceasefire agreement has mostly held, its progress has slowed.

Israel has said it refuses to move to the next phase while the remains of the final hostage killed in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war are still in Gaza. Hamas has said the destruction in Gaza has hampered efforts to find remains.

Challenges in the next phase include the deployment of an international stabilization force, a technocratic governing body for Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and further Israeli troop withdrawals from the territory.

Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of truce violations.

Abou AlJoud reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

This version corrects to say the ceasefire came into effect on Oct. 10.

Find more of AP’s Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

Palestinian children carry sacks filled with firewood as they walk through a displacement camp in Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinian children carry plastic jerrycans filled with water as they walk through a displacement camp in Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians walk along a street lined with war-damaged buildings in the rain, in Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A Palestinian child carries a bag of flour on his back at a makeshift camp on the beach, in Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A temporary camp for displaced Palestinians on the beach, near the port of Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Members of the Al-Ajouri family stand by their tent that was destroyed by a strong wind and rain in Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians receive donated food at a temporary camp for displaced people, on the beach near the port of Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

LATAKIA, Syria (AP) — Clashes broke out on Syria’s coast between protesters from the Alawite religious minority and counterdemonstrators on Sunday, killing at least three people and injuring dozens of others, health officials said.

The clashes came two days after a bombing at an Alawite mosque in the city of Homs killed eight people and wounded 18 others during prayers.

Thousands of protesters gathered in the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartous, and elsewhere. Officials have said that preliminary investigations indicate that explosive devices were planted inside the mosque in Homs, but authorities haven't publicly identified a suspect yet in Friday's bombing. Funerals for the dead were held on Saturday.

A little-known group calling itself Saraya Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its Telegram channel, in which it indicated that the attack intended to target members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam whom hard-line Islamists consider to be apostates.

Sunday’s demonstrations were called for by Ghazal Ghazal, an Alawite sheikh living outside of Syria who heads a group called the Supreme Alawite Islamic Council in Syria and the Diaspora.

An Associated Press photographer in Latakia saw pro-government counterprotesters throw rocks at the Alawite demonstrators, while a group of protesters beat a counterdemonstrator who crossed to their side. Security forces tried to break up the two sides and fired into the air in an attempt to disperse them. Demonstrators were injured in the scuffles, but it wasn't immediately clear how many.

Syria’s state-run television reported that two members of the security forces were wounded in the area of Tartous after someone threw a hand grenade at a police station, and cars belonging to security forces were set on fire in Latakia.

Later, state-run news agency SANA reported that a member of the security forces was killed by gunfire. Local health officials said that three people were killed and 60 others wounded.

The country has experienced several waves of sectarian clashes since the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a lightning rebel offensive in December 2024 that brought to an end nearly 14 years of civil war. Assad, an Alawite, fled the country to Russia.

In March, an ambush carried out by Assad’s supporters against security forces triggered days of violence that left hundreds of people dead, most of them Alawites. Since then, although the situation has calmed, Alawites have been targeted sporadically in sectarian attacks. They have also complained of discrimination against them in public employment since Assad’s fall and of young Alawite men detained without charges.

During the rein of the Assad dynasty, Alawites were overrepresented in government jobs and in the army and security forces.

Government officials condemned Friday’s attack and promised to hold perpetrators accountable, but haven't yet announced any arrests.

A man seriously injured by a thrown stone is taken away from the area after clashes erupted between Alawite protesters from the Alawite religious minority and counterprotesters, two days after a bomb in an Alawite mosque in Homs killed eight people and wounded 18 during Friday prayers, in Latakia, Syria's coastal region, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

A man seriously injured by a thrown stone is taken away from the area after clashes erupted between Alawite protesters from the Alawite religious minority and counterprotesters, two days after a bomb in an Alawite mosque in Homs killed eight people and wounded 18 during Friday prayers, in Latakia, Syria's coastal region, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

A police officer injured by a thrown stone is helped away from the area after clashes erupted between Alawite protesters from the Alawite religious minority and counterprotesters, two days after a bomb in an Alawite mosque in Homs killed eight people and wounded 18 during Friday prayers, in Latakia, Syria's coastal region, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Protesters from the Alawite religious minority demonstrate two days after a bomb in an Alawite mosque in Homs killed eight people and wounded 18 during Friday prayers, in Latakia, Syria's coastal region, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Protesters from the Alawite religious minority demonstrate two days after a bomb in an Alawite mosque in Homs killed eight people and wounded 18 during Friday prayers, in Latakia, Syria's coastal region, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Protesters from the Alawite religious minority demonstrate two days after a bomb in an Alawite mosque in Homs killed eight people and wounded 18 during Friday prayers, in Latakia, Syria's coastal region, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Counter-protesters chant pro-government slogans at Alawite demonstrators, two days after a bomb in an Alawite mosque in Homs killed eight people and wounded 18 during Friday prayers, in Latakia, Syria's coastal region, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Syrian security officers inspect the site of an attack a day earlier at the Imam Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque in the predominantly Alawite Wadi al-Dhahab neighborhood of Homs, Syria, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Mourners attend the funeral of victims of an attack a day earlier at the Imam Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque, outside the mosque in the predominantly Alawite Wadi al-Dhahab neighborhood of Homs, Syria, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)