Deir el-Balah, Gaza – After a night of relentless rain, Arafat al-Ghandour and his wife, Nour, finally exhaled in relief as the morning sun emerged, if only briefly, over the soaked displacement camp.

The couple, parents of five, live in a worn tent riddled with holes. They spent the night battling water pouring in from every direction.

Arafat, 39, shares the cramped space, no larger than eight square metres (86sq feet), with 15 family members, including his elderly parents, his sister and her family, and his brother’s wife and children. The conditions, he says, are “inhumane”.

“All night I was plugging the holes with rags and plastic bags,” Arafat told Al Jazeera. “I haven’t slept yet. And they say the storm hasn’t really started.”

In the early morning, the family hurried to spread t

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