An eight-month-old Palestinian baby, Rahaf Abu Jazar, died overnight in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis after her family’s tent flooded amid a winter storm, as heavy rains and winds are adding to the misery for Palestinians displaced by Israel’s genocidal war and suffering under the continued Israeli blockade.
“When we woke up, we found the rain over her and the wind on her, and the girl died of cold suddenly,” Rahaf’s mother, Hejar, told Reuters. “There was nothing wrong with her. Oh, the fire in my heart, the fire in my heart, oh my life.”
Despite the ceasefire deal in Gaza, Israel has continued launching attacks on Palestinians in the Strip and is not allowing reconstruction to take place. Israel has also maintained restrictions on aid and other goods entering Gaza, including tents and tent poles, which Israel has designated a “dual-use” item.
Many tents in Gaza are in need of repair since families have been living in them for so long, and out of desperation, Palestinians have resorted to pulling iron bars out of destroyed buildings to use them to construct tents or sell them. Officials in Gaza say 300,000 tents are needed, and aid groups say just 15,000 have entered the Strip since the ceasefire deal was signed.
Healthcare workers in Gaza are concerned that more Palestinians could die of hypothermia or disease as the heavy rain and winds continue. “We have been drowned. I don’t have clothes to wear and we have no mattresses left,” Um Salman Abu Qenas, a displaced mother in a tent camp in Khan Younis, told The Associated Press.
Hani Mahmoud, a reporter for Al Jazeera based in Gaza City, said tents were being blown away by the wind. “We’ve seen many families forced out of their tents as they were flooded,” he said as the sun was going down on Thursday. “We’ve also seen many of these tents blown away by the winds, and many [others] were brought down by the heavy downpour. It looks like it’s going to be a very difficult night for displaced families inside these tents that are not designed to withstand strong winds and heavy rain.”
