India, Dec. 29 -- Barefoot children played on chilly sand as Gaza 's thousands of displaced people prepared threadbare tents on Saturday for another round of winter rain. Some families in the central town of Deir al-Balah said they had been living in tents for about two years, or for most of the war between Israel and Hamas that has devastated the territory. Fathers braced fraying tents with old pieces of wood or inspected the ragged edges of holes torn in tarps.

Inside the dim homes, daylight through tiny holes shone like stars. Mothers battled the damp, slinging clothing over poles or cord to dry in the wind between the downpours that turn paths into puddles. One mother pulled a tiny child away from a mildewing patch of carpet. "We hav...