Gaza’s Catastrophe Continues: Storms Destroy Tents, Children Chill to Death   

By Staff, Agencies 

Four Palestinians were killed after a house collapsed in the Al-Nasr neighborhood of Gaza City as a result of the low-pressure system battering the Strip.

Meanwhile, the displaced are enduring extremely harsh humanitarian conditions as strong winds tore down tents and rain outpours flooded a number of others in various areas of the Gaza Strip.

Similarly, on Tuesday, three citizens were killed when a wedding hall being used as a shelter for displaced people in the Al-Chalets area west of Gaza City collapsed due to the intensity of the winds.

The tragedy was compounded by the deaths of two young children from extreme cold, a seven-day-old infant and a four-year-old child, raising the number of winter-related child fatalities in Gaza since the start of winter to six. Health officials said the deaths highlight the deadly consequences of forcible displacement, shortages of shelter, and the collapse of basic living conditions.

127,000 out of 135,000 tents across the Gaza Strip have become uninhabitable due to recent weather depressions, as worsening conditions expose the fragility of emergency shelters, Gaza’s Government Media Office announced.

In a statement, the office noted that shortages of blankets and heating supplies exceed 70% throughout the Strip, stressing that “Israel” has destroyed nearly 90% of Gaza’s built environment, displaced more than two million people, and left approximately 288,000 families without any shelter.

The collapse comes against the backdrop of systematic destruction inflicted by “Israeli” bombardments and repeated demolition operations, which have severely weakened Gaza’s residential infrastructure. Thousands of homes and buildings had already sustained structural damage during months of airstrikes and shelling, leaving them highly vulnerable to collapse under harsh weather conditions.

The ongoing attacks, combined with restrictions on reconstruction materials, have turned ordinary rain and wind into deadly threats for civilians, particularly displaced families forced to shelter in unsafe, damaged structures.

In its daily toll on January 12, Gaza's Health Ministry announced that since the ceasefire declared on October 11, at least 442 Palestinians have been martyredand 1,240 injured, while 697 bodies have been retrieved from rubble left by earlier strikes.

Since the start of the “Israeli” genocide on October 7, 2023, Gaza’s cumulative toll has reached 71,419 martyred and 171,318 wounded, figures the Ministry described as catastrophic and unprecedented.

More than 18,500 people from Gaza, including nearly 4,000 children, are in urgent need of medical evacuation, the Director-General of the World Health Organization [WHO], Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced on Monday.

Tedros called on countries around the world to open their doors to patients from Gaza and to resume medical evacuation operations to the West Bank, including the eastern part of occupied al-Quds, so that they can receive necessary treatment.

He explained that last week, WHO supported the evacuation of 18 patients and 36 companions from Gaza to Jordan, where they received specialized medical care for severe injuries and life-threatening conditions.

Tedros added that since October 2023, over 10,700 patients have been evacuated from Gaza for specialized treatment in more than 30 countries around the world.