Fierce rain and bitter cold continued to pound Gaza over the weekend, as the death toll from the harsh winter weather rises steadily.
According to CNN, on Sunday, Gaza’s civil defense reported that two people, including a seven-year-old child, died when a wall collapsed under the extreme conditions.
As Palestinians seek refuge from the heavy rainfall in bombed-out buildings, aid agencies have warned of the dangers posed by unstable structures, which are prone to collapse during severe weather.
The Hamas-run Government Media Office in Gaza said Sunday that at least 20 people have died as homes and buildings fell on those seeking shelter. Since the beginning of winter, 49 buildings have collapsed due to the weather, the GMO added.
For those surviving in fragile, waterlogged tents, strong winds threaten to destroy their shelters entirely. Eyad Abu Jdeyan, a displaced man living in a refugee camp in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, recounted the devastation.
“This is the second tree that has fallen on us because of the wind. Where is the world for us, where are human rights?” he told CNN on Sunday. “We are sitting here in death. God protected us; otherwise, everyone here would have been martyred.”
In the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, displaced Palestinians are battling to survive in soaked tents as heavy storms persist. After a night of intense rainfall, residents of Khan Younis woke to find water pooled inside their shelters, Ahmed Radwan of Gaza’s Civil Defense said.
“Even livestock and animals could not live or reside (in these places). But people have been forced to live in these areas because they have no other option than to go back to their destroyed homes,” he added, describing the situation as a new “catastrophic situation” worsening the already dire humanitarian crisis in the enclave.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has warned that aid is not reaching Gaza at the scale needed. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini emphasized that the agency could “multiply its efforts tomorrow” if aid were allowed through.
“More rain. More human misery, despair & death. Harsh winter weather is compounding more than two years of suffering. People in Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents & among ruins,” Lazzarini said in a statement on X.
This latest humanitarian disaster in Gaza comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to meet President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago this week, as Washington pushes for progress on the next phase of the Gaza peace plan.
