Four Palestinians have been killed after buildings damaged by the Zionist occupation’s airstrikes collapsed in Gaza as a powerful storm battered the enclave, Palestinian civil defense said on Tuesday.
The buildings collapsed due to heavy rainfall and strong winds driven by a low-pressure weather system that began affecting the region Monday evening.
The victims included an elderly man, a child, and two women. Several others were injured in separate incidents involving the collapse of cracked homes and unstable structures in Gaza City as winds intensified overnight.
The storm has worsened conditions for hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians living in tents across the Gaza Strip, where strong winds and heavy rain since the night hours have flooded, torn apart, and uprooted thousands of makeshift shelters, particularly along the coast.
Health and local sources in Gaza warned of the dire situation facing displaced people in the Strip as a severe polar air mass arrived. Approximately 127,000 out of 135,000 tents are now uninhabitable, amid a critical shortage of blankets, mattresses, and heating supplies, WAFA news agency reported.
WAFA correspondents reported that displaced people are facing the bitter cold without sufficient blankets or mattresses to protect them from the cold and damp, particularly families living in dilapidated tents or in remote and isolated areas. The shortage of blankets and heating supplies exceeds 70% across the Strip, and is even more critical in remote areas.
The occupation has repeatedly targeted shelters and aid distribution centers. Since the start of the offensive, 303 shelters and 61 food distribution centers have been bombed, leaving most displaced families without heating and blankets. Children, women, and the elderly have been forced to sleep on the ground inside tents that offer no protection from the wind or rain, WAFA said, citing official sources.
According to medical sources, these conditions resulted in the deaths of 21 displaced people due to the extreme cold, including 18 children in displacement camps. Tens of thousands of cases of respiratory and infectious diseases were recorded, amid the lack of heating and the disruption of the health sector after the destruction of 38 hospitals and the closure of 96 health centers, which increased the likelihood of death among infants, the elderly, and the sick.
