How Hamas shaped Gaza's winter flooding narrative before the first storm

Key Points:

• Hamas’s Gaza Winter Emergency Committee issued a detailed press release on November 1, 2026, predicting a harsh winter and attributing potential suffering to Israeli restrictions on shelter supplies, providing specific figures on tents, tarps, and damaged buildings.
• Before any storm hit, Hamas-aligned narratives and figures were disseminated by groups like Euro-Med Monitor, framing Israel as responsible for a looming winter catastrophe in Gaza, which then entered international media coverage.
• After flooding began on November 6, Hamas’s Government Media Office quickly claimed that 70,000 tents were flooded and $3 million in losses occurred within 12 hours, a figure rapidly picked up by major news outlets and social media, often without clear attribution to Hamas.
• International coverage largely overlooked Israeli preparations, as COGAT had facilitated the entry of over 91,000 tents and thousands of trucks of winter supplies into Gaza since early September, aiming to maintain humanitarian conditions despite ongoing conflict.
• HonestReporting and its News Director Justin Pozmanter argue that while flooding occurred, the narrative and scale of suffering were pre-constructed by Hamas and echoed by affiliated organizations, often ignoring Israel’s substantial humanitarian efforts during the winterization campaign.