Children of Gaza are dying from the cold

The Gaza Health Ministry reported on Saturday that approximately 10 people died in the collapse of dilapidated houses due to the ongoing storm system, which brought heavy rain and strong winds. This comes in addition to three children who died from the extreme cold on Friday.

The Gaza Civil Defense Authority had announced on Friday that at least 16 people had died, including three children, from the cold and harsh winter conditions in the Gaza Strip.

Floods from Storm Byron inundated tents and makeshift shelters in the Gaza Strip, exacerbating the suffering of residents, most of whom were displaced from their homes by the war that lasted for more than two years.

The Civil Defense told AFP that the three children who died from the cold were from Khan Younis, in the south, with two in Gaza City and one in the south.

Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City confirmed the deaths of Hadeel al-Masri, 9, and Taim al-Khawaja, who they said was only a few months old.

Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis reported that eight-month-old Rahaf Abu Jazar died from the cold in the nearby al-Mawasi refugee camp.

Five thousand tents erected among the rubble of Gaza City have become shelters from the winter cold after the war destroyed most of the Strip’s buildings.

Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said six people were killed when a house collapsed on them in the Bir al-Na’ja area, in the northern Gaza Strip. He added that rescuers recovered two bodies from the rubble of a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City. Five others were killed in separate incidents when walls collapsed on them.