At least 6 die in Gaza collapsed buildings, more deaths from extreme cold
At least six people were killed after heavy rain flooded tents and collapsed homes sheltering displaced families in Gaza.
Dangerous living conditions persist in Gaza after more than two years of devastating Israeli bombardment and aid shortfalls. A ceasefire has been in effect since October 10. But aid groups say that Palestinians broadly lack the shelter necessary to withstand frequent winter storms.
The people who died in Tuesday’s stormy conditions include two women, a girl and a man, according to al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza City’s largest, which received their bodies.
There were also reports of several other deaths of children and the elderly due to the cold weather. The Gaza Health Ministry said on Tuesday that a one-year-old boy died of hypothermia overnight. Two other children had died on Monday night due to the freezing conditions and inadequate shelter, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military said it exchanged fire on Tuesday with six people spotted near its troops deployed in southern Gaza, killing at least two of them in western Rafah.
Tents blown away, damaged
On Tuesday, hundreds of tents and makeshift shelters were also blown away or heavily damaged, the UN humanitarian office reported.
Three members of the same family — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an 8-metre (26-foot) high wall collapsed onto their tent in a coastal area along the Mediterranean shore of Gaza City, al-Shifa Hospital said. At least five others were injured.
Their relatives on Tuesday began removing the rubble that had buried their loved ones and rebuilding the tent shelters for survivors. “The world has allowed us to witness death in all its forms,” Bassel Hamouda told the Associated Press after the funeral. “It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip.”
A second woman was killed when a wall fell on her tent in the western part of the city, Shifa Hospital said.
Civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal warned of catastrophic repercussions from the storm for Gaza’s population, the majority of whom have been left without adequate shelter as a result of Israel’s war and its ongoing restrictions on goods entering the territory.
Surge of hospital patients
A civil defence spokesperson said hospitals across the territory were also observing an influx of patients, particularly children, with cold-related illnesses, and the organisation had received hundreds of calls for support due to extreme cold. He said shelters had been damaged by the storm and were no longer fit for use, while other tents were being blown away completely by strong winds in western Gaza City.
Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that the situation was the worst it had been since the winter storms began. He said about 10,000 families on Gaza’s coast were exposed to danger and further displacement as a result of the storm.
Shawa said Israel’s restrictions on goods entering the Strip were preventing access to much-needed shelter and medical supplies and hampering the work of aid organisations, endangering Gaza’s hard-hit population.
