US President Donald Trump’s Peace Board urged Israel to allow essential aid into Gaza, after calling its response to massive weekend flooding in the shattered enclave “insufficient”. Seasonal rains flooded tens of thousands of tents across Gaza, where nearly 2 million Palestinians are displaced, according to the United Nations. “The urgent entry and distribution of shelter, sanitation, drainage and other essential winter supplies is critical to protecting civilian lives,” the Peace Board said in a statement Monday. Created by the Trump administration and backed by a U.N. Security Council resolution, the organization was supposed to oversee implementation of a ceasefire in Gaza signed a year ago and reconstruction of the enclave, but the effort has been stalled for months. The Peace Board called on Israel to “authorize the entry of essential materials for temporary shelter, water and sanitation infrastructure, waste management, drainage and sewage disposal.” Much of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure has been destroyed by Israeli bombing of the territory during three years of war. Since the nominal ceasefire went into effect in October 2025, Israel’s near-daily strikes have killed more than 1,400 people in Gaza, according to the UN, and no hospitals in the enclave are fully operational. Philippe Lazzarini, former head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), described the board’s assessment of the Israeli response to the floods as an “overwhelming”. Lazzarini noted his “rare recognition” that Israel is not doing enough to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, then harshly criticized the junta – which largely avoids harsh criticism of the Israeli government – saying it “does not use any of its influence to address the shameful dystopian misery of Palestinians in Gaza.” On Sunday afternoon, a sand embankment in Deir al-Balah collapsed on the tents of displaced Palestinians following heavy rains, killing three children and a woman, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who led a multinational effort to impose sanctions on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, warned: “The humanitarian situation in Gaza is worsening. Heavy rain. Flooded tents. The reality on the ground is heartbreaking.” “The UK government will not stand still. We will not rest until we end the intolerable suffering,” he said in a statement on “The reconstruction of Gaza can only begin after Hamas is completely disarmed,” said Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which oversees Gaza. “Israel will not allow the entry of equipment that could be used to develop terrorist capabilities.”
