A five-year-old Palestinian girl died in Gaza on Tuesday night after the wall of a building damaged by Israel’s bombing campaign collapsed on her tent, according to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, as the US and Israel continue to prevent reconstruction and a real relief effort from taking place.
The girl, Ilaf Barbakh, was killed in the al-Mawasi tent camp, where she was sheltering with her family. Footage shows her family mourning her and wrapping her in a white shroud at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, a man also died due to a collapsing building, bringing the total number of Palestinians who have died due to crumbling buildings amid harsh storms in recent weeks to 19. Several babies have also died due to exposure as families are sheltering in flimsy tents amid cold weather and floods.
While some tents have been allowed into Gaza, Israel has maintained significant restrictions. “This month, the UN and its partners have provided tents, tarpaulins and bedding items to more than 80,000 households – or approximately 448,400 people,” the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in an update on Gaza on Wednesday.
“[W]hile this is significant, it remains far from enough, as many families are still struggling in weather-damaged makeshift tents or war-damaged buildings at risk of collapse. An easing of restrictions on bringing in shelter materials and other critical items is urgently needed,” OCHA added.
The US has been considering a plan to allow reconstruction only in the Israeli-controlled side of Gaza and to allow a certain number of Palestinians vetted by Israel to live in “communities” established there as a way to pressure Hamas, raising fears the plan will lead to a permanent Israeli occupation. The vast majority of the civilians in Gaza live on the Hamas-controlled side, while a few hundred or a few thousand live under the protection of Israeli-backed militias on the IDF side.
