People stand at the site of a deadly sand embankment collapse at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on November 9, 2026 [AFP]
The first major storm of the season flooded about 70,000 tents in Gaza within 12 hours, killing at least five people and causing about $3m in damage, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.
The storm hit over the weekend. By Monday, Gaza’s Civil Defence had logged more than 2,100 distress calls, warning that more than 2,000 buildings risk collapse. Nearly 400,000 displaced people shelter in areas judged highly vulnerable.
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Israel is blocking 60,000 mobile homes and 200,000 tents, allowing only 20,000 tents into Gaza, where about 85 percent of homes have been destroyed or damaged by Israel’s three-year genocidal war.
Gaza’s Crossings and Borders Authority said Israel also let in no aid trucks or commercial goods on November 6 and 7; five trucks of cooking gas entered the next day. The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says Israel notified the UN on November 1 that it would suspend shipments from Egypt, and aid groups warn daily cooked meals could fall from about 600,000 to 330,000 as a result.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health says 20 more Palestinians were killed over the past week, bringing the toll since the October 2025 “ceasefire” to 1,613 as of November 9. Among them:
The weekend storm came as Hamas urged mediators and the Board of Peace not to link reconstruction to political or security conditions.
Arab-led parties at the table, and in the crosshairs
The political battle over Gaza’s future is unfolding as parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel hold potentially decisive leverage in Israel’s post-election negotiations – amid an ongoing demonisation campaign against the parties and Arab voting power in Israel.
President Isaac Herzog gave opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot the mandate to form a government over the weekend after 67 members of parliament recommended him, against 46 for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Eisenkot wants a “national emergency government” open to any party accepting four principles, including recognition of Israel as a “Jewish and democratic” state, and Hamas as a “terrorist” group to be destroyed. For his part, Netanyahu gave a speech seeking a “national unity” government with Eisenkot, Likud, and his Haredi and far-right allies, warning that a government reliant on Arab-led parties would be backed by those who “want to eliminate Israel”.
One of the Arab-led blocs, the Joint List, has said its priority is to topple the Netanyahu government, but that it cannot join an administration that violates international law. It has also said it expects action on education, welfare and crime if it is to support Eisenkot from outside government.
In discussions with Herzog, Mansour Abbas, the leader of the other Arab-led party, the United Arab List (Ra’am), declined to call Hamas a “terror” group, citing fear for his family, while backing its disarmament, according to the Times of Israel. Avigdor Liberman, leader of the opposition Yisrael Beytenu party, repeated that no government should rely on either Palestinian-led party.
Beyond the rhetoric, journalist Abed Abou Shhadeh, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, was released without charge on November 8 after five days in the custody of the domestic intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, saying his arrest was meant “to intimidate Arab society as a whole”.
The Shin Bet chief sought to question leaders of the Palestinian-led parties, but Israel’s attorney general says the fraud probes would not “even remotely” change the result of the election. Tensions on the streets led to a far-right march through a Palestinian neighbourhood in the mixed city of al-Lyd (Lod) on the evening of November 8, which ended in a brawl and 11 arrests, according to the Times of Israel.
West Bank: Takeovers, seizures and a harvest under attack
On November 4, about 30 settlers backed by the settler group Nachala entered Ein a-Duyuk a-Tahta, near Jericho, and took over eight Palestinian homes. Peace Now, citing reports, said settlers shot a Palestinian man in the leg, and the UN said the army declared a closed military zone, blocking humanitarian access.
Settlers say they bought the homes through Nachala; Jericho Governor Hussein Hamayel called the sale a forgery.
For months, the state has backed settlers’ land razing and takeover efforts in the area, and that continued this week. The Jerusalem Post reported the alleged purchase was coordinated with the settler Binyamin Regional Council.
Haaretz reported that Central Command chief Major General Avi Bluth knew of the entry in advance and told the settlers not to alert senior officers until they were inside, with three army platoons diverted to protect the settlers during the takeover of houses; the army called the Haaretz report false.
But Jericho was only the most dramatic case of a multi-pronged escalation in which land seizures, demolitions, attacks and arrests unfolded in the West Bank, with settlers, soldiers and the Civil Administration often working in concert.