Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said in a statement that Civil Defense crews recorded “four deaths as a result of partial collapses of dilapidated buildings that had been bombed by the occupation army during the war of extermination,” explaining that heavy rain and strong winds caused the collapse of these dilapidated buildings to accelerate.
Basal appealed to international and humanitarian organizations to “take swift and urgent action to provide support and protection to Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip,” warning that the continuation of the current situation threatens to cause more casualties, given the absence of any safety measures within temporary shelters.
Eyewitnesses reported that three Palestinians from the same family, Muhammad Hamouda (72 years old), Duaa Hamouda (40 years old), and Rimas Hamouda (15 years old), died as a result of the collapse of part of the “Orgenza” hall building, which houses displaced people in the vicinity of the chalets on the beach of Gaza City, north of the Strip.
Witnesses added that rescue teams and medical crews were able to recover the bodies of the martyrs after removing the rubble and debris that had fallen on them.
Palestinian woman Hiyam Shreir, 33, was killed when the wall of her house collapsed on Al-Thawra Street, west of Gaza City, due to strong winds and rain, according to eyewitnesses.
In a related context, medical sources reported that displaced person Mohammed Al-Basyouni (35 years old) was seriously injured after falling from his tent, which was located on top of a residential building in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, due to strong winds. Meanwhile, a cracked house wall collapsed near Asma School in Al-Shati Camp without any injuries being recorded.
For its part, the government media office in Gaza announced that 127,000 out of 135,000 tents have become uninhabitable, in light of a very cold polar air depression hitting the sector.
The head of the office, Ismail Al-Thawabta, said that “the crisis of blankets, mattresses and heating equipment in the Gaza Strip is severe and suffocating, especially for families living in dilapidated tents and remote and isolated areas.”
He added that the displaced people “are facing the bitter cold without sufficient blankets or mattresses to protect them from the ground and dampness,” noting that the shortage of blankets and heating equipment exceeds 70% across the sector, and rises to more dangerous levels in remote areas.
Thawabta explained that this crisis “is not circumstantial, but rather a direct result of the occupation’s policies based on total destruction,” noting that the occupation army destroyed about 90% of the urban infrastructure, displaced more than two million Palestinians, and left more than 288,000 families without shelter.
He pointed out that the complete closure of the crossings for more than 500 days, including more than 220 consecutive days, and the prevention of the entry of hundreds of thousands of aid and fuel trucks, exacerbated the size of the humanitarian disaster, stressing that the occupation targeted 303 shelters and 61 food distribution centers duringthe war.
He explained that “most displaced families have no means of heating or blankets, forcing children, women, and the elderly to sleep on the ground inside tents that do not protect them from the wind or rain,” warning that these conditions have led to tens of thousands of cases of respiratory and infectious diseases, in light of the destruction of 38 hospitals and the disruption of 96 health care centers.
He stressed that what the displaced people are experiencing “represents a policy of slow killing through forced displacement, denial of shelter and heating, and closure of crossings,” calling for urgent international action to provide safe shelter and heating before winter turns into a new season of mass deaths.
This comes at a time when Israel continues to prevent the entry of building materials and obstruct reconstruction, despite the ceasefire agreement that came into effect on October 10, which ended a war of extermination waged by the Israeli occupation since October 8, 2023, which resulted in the martyrdom of more than 71,000 Palestinians, and the injury of more than 171,000, in addition to massive destruction that affected about 90% of the civilian infrastructure in the sector.
