Living conditions worsen for Gazans

Strong winds and the cold leave five dead amid lack of sufficient shelter during winter.

- By Waraa SHURAFA AND Samy Magdy

Strong winter winds collapsed walls onto flimsy tents for Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, killing at least four, hospital authorities said Tuesday.

Dangerous living conditions persist in Gaza after more than two years of devastating Israeli bombardment and aid shortfalls. A ceasefire has been in effect since Oct. 10. But aid groups say that Palestinians broadly lack the shelter necessary to withstand frequent winter storms.

The dead include two women, a girl and a man, according to Shifa Hospital, Gaza City’s largest, which received the bodies.

Meanwhile, the child death toll in Gaza ticked up.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Tuesday that a 1-year-old boy died of hypothermia overnight, and the spokesman for the United Nations children’s agency said more than 100 children and teenagers have been killed by “military means” since the ceasefire began.

Family mourns

Three members of the same family — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter and his daughter-in-law — were killed when a 26-foot wall collapsed onto their tent in a coastal area along the Mediterranean shore of Gaza City, Shifa Hospital said. At least five others were injured.

Their relatives on Tuesday began removing the rubble that had buried their loved ones and rebuilding the tent shelters for survivors.

"The world has allowed us to witness death in all its forms,” Bassel Hamouda said after the funeral. “It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip.”