Eight Palestinians have died as a new storm caused freezing winds and toppled buildings in war-ravaged Gaza, piling further misery on tens of thousands of displaced people surviving in flimsy shelters. Four people have been killed since Monday night after buildings damaged by Israeli airstrikes collapsed in Gaza as a powerful storm battered the enclave, Palestinian civil defense said on Tuesday. Three people, including a 15-year-old girl, were killed when one building collapsed in Gaza City while a fourth was killed in a separate building collapse in the city. The buildings collapsed due to heavy rainfall and strong winds driven by a low-pressure weather system that began affecting the region Monday evening. Four deaths have been recorded due to cold temperatures caused by a severe weather depression that has brought torrential rain and freezing winds to the coastal enclave, Civil defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basalsaid on Tuesday. 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. "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. In central Gaza, thousands of displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp sought refuge in mosques and partially damaged buildings after their tents collapsed or were severely damaged by the storm, witnesses told Anadolu news agency. Gaza's government media office said that 127,000 of the 135,000 tents sheltering displaced Palestinians are no longer fit for habitation as a severe polar cold grips the Gaza Strip. 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. 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". 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. 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. 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. 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. Majid 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 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. The humanitarian crisis across the Gaza Strip remains extremely serious, with harsh winter weather threatening to reverse recent gains in aid delivery, the United Nations said on Monday. Briefing correspondents in New York, Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric reported that ongoing rainstorms are damaging and destroying fragile shelters, leaving large numbers of displaced people exposed to the cold. "To help address immense shelter needs, during the past week our partners delivered supplies to 28,000 families, including 1,600 tents, 16,000 tarpaulins and 27,000 blankets,"Dujarric said. 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. — Agencies
