At least 5 die in Gaza collapsed buildings, more deaths from extreme cold | Israel-Palestine conflict News

At least five Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as a fierce winter storm toppled buildings damaged by Israeli attacks in its genocidal war on the territory, the Wafa news agency is reporting.

Several others, including a one-year-old child, died due to the extreme cold, civil defence and hospital officials reported Tuesday, as a low-pressure system brought cold temperatures, heavy rains and chilling winds to the coastal enclave, where tens of thousands of displaced people are surviving in flimsy, inadequate shelters.

Israel continues to block desperately needed humanitarian aid and critical supplies for shelters from entering the besieged Gaza Strip in violation of a ceasefire that began on October 10.

Wafa reported that five people had died when war-damaged buildings collapsed during the storm.

Palestinian Civil Defence and officials at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City’s Remal neighbourhood said that at least three people, including a 15-year-old girl, were killed when one building collapsed in Gaza City, while another was killed in a separate building collapse in the city.

The news agency reported that there had been several other deaths among children and the elderly due to the cold weather.

A source at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah said one of the victims was a one-year-old who died in a tent before being brought to the facility.

Two other children had died on Monday night due to the freezing conditions and inadequate shelter, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

“We’ve had children die of hypothermia again in the last few days. We’ve now gone to six children who died of hypothermia just in this winter,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said Tuesday.

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.

In a statement, Hamas said it was regrettable that the international community was failing to provide relief to Gaza, saying the rising death toll and spread of illness showed the territory was “experiencing the most horrific form of genocide”.

Surge of hospital patients

A civil defence spokesperson said hospitals across the territory were 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.

Gaza City Mayor Yahya al-Sarraj told Al Jazeera that Palestinians in the Strip were trapped in “tragic” circumstances, sheltering in inadequate tents and shelters, many of which were at risk of collapse, with insufficient supplies of medicine to treat those who are ill or wounded.

He called on the international community to pressure Israel to allow aid into the territory so Palestinians would be able to rebuild their homes.

The low-pressure system is expected to bring cold temperatures to Gaza until at least Tuesday evening, forecasters said.

‘Man-made humanitarian catastrophe’

At a briefing on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the “man-made humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and said Israel should allow aid into the enclave.

Majed al-Ansari said that Qatar is working with mediators to push for the transition to the second phase of the Gaza agreement, noting that the complexities on the table at this moment necessitate progress towards implementing this phase.

Al-Ansari stressed in his statements the need to avoid linking the agreement in Gaza with the opening of the Rafah crossing or the entry of humanitarian aid without conditions, adding that every day that passes without aid entering Gaza means more victims.

He also stated that there are no specific timetables regarding Gaza, noting that Qatari contacts are ongoing and daily to push the agreement forward, and he asked Israel to answer the question: “Why is the implementation of the Gaza agreement being delayed?”

As the death toll from the storm rose in Gaza, UNICEF said dozens of children have been killed since the start of the ceasefire three months ago.

“More than 100 children have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire of early October. That’s roughly a girl or a boy killed here every day during a ceasefire,” Elder, the UN children’s agency spokesman, told reporters.

He said the children had been killed in air strikes, drone strikes, tank shelling and by live ammunition.