Severe winter weather has deepened the humanitarian emergency in Gaza, compounding the suffering of hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians as aid groups warn that restrictions imposed by Israel are still preventing critical relief from reaching the territory.
According to the United Nations, shipments of tents, blankets and other basic necessities are prepared for delivery, yet access through border crossings remains blocked or tightly limited by Israeli authorities.
The storms have torn through already fragile living conditions, damaging or destroying makeshift shelters and wiping out what little personal property many families had left, a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
“The disruption has affected approximately 30,000 children across Gaza. Urgent repairs are needed to ensure these activities can resume without delay,” said spokesperson Farhan Haq.
The impact has been especially severe in Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp, where heavy rain and strong winds caused the roof of a home already weakened by the war to collapse.
Emergency teams reported rescuing six Palestinians alive from the debris on Wednesday, including two children.
Earlier, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said a Palestinian baby just two weeks old had died from the cold, underscoring the dangers faced by people sheltering in unsafe and exposed conditions.
In a statement, the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza said, “What we are experiencing now in the Gaza Strip is a true humanitarian catastrophe.”
These developments come as Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, DC, to discuss efforts to stabilise Gaza’s fragile ceasefire.
Qatari officials said the talks centred on mediation initiatives, the pressing need to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, and progress toward the second phase of a US-backed proposal aimed at ending Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
Sheikh Mohammed emphasised that humanitarian aid must be permitted to enter Gaza “unconditionally”. He also raised the possibility of deploying an international stabilisation force in the territory after the war, stressing that such a force would need to operate in an impartial manner.
Meanwhile, violence has not fully subsided despite the ceasefire. Israeli attacks in central Gaza City wounded at least 11 Palestinians. Artillery fire was reported east of Khan Younis, and gunfire injured two people in eastern Gaza City. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces shot and wounded a man in Qalqilya.
Since October 2023, Palestinian health authorities say at least 70,668 Palestinians have been killed and 171,152 injured in Gaza. On the Israeli side, 1,139 people were killed during the Hamas-led attack on 7 October.
