Winter storms in Gaza collapse tents, killing four and exposing dire living conditions for displaced Palestinians amid ongoing aid shortages.
Newsroom (14/01/2026 Gaudium Press )Strong winter winds tore through the Gaza Strip this week, toppling walls and crushing fragile tents used as makeshift shelters by displaced Palestinians. Hospital officials said Tuesday that at least four people were killed, underscoring the peril residents face even in the lull of war.
Shifa Hospital in Gaza City reported receiving the bodies of two women, a girl, and a man after the collapse. The victims included three members of the same family—72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his daughter-in-law, and 15-year-old granddaughter—killed when a 26-foot-high wall fell onto their shelter along Gaza’s coastal edge. Relatives began the grim task of clearing debris and rebuilding the remaining tents for survivors.
“The world has allowed us to witness death in all its forms,” said Bassel Hamouda after their funeral. “The bombing may have stopped, but death never left Gaza.”
Another woman was killed in a separate wall collapse in western Gaza City, hospital officials said.
Shelter and Safety, Both Elusive
More than two years after Israeli bombardments devastated neighborhoods, a tenuous ceasefire has held since October 10. But aid groups warn the truce has done little to ease the humanitarian strain. The majority of Gaza’s population now lives in tents or under other temporary coverings, often lacking the materials needed to withstand harsh winter weather.
For many families, even rudimentary repairs are a daily chore. In the central town of Zawaida, flooding drenched entire encampments, forcing residents to rebuild their shelters yet again. Yasmin Shalha, a displaced mother of five from Beit Lahiya, sewed her torn tent back together as strong winds battered the camp. “The tent collapsed over us as we slept,” she said. “Our situation is dire.”
On Gaza’s southern coast, heavy rains and rising tides swept tents into the Mediterranean. “The sea took our mattresses, our tents, our food, and everything we owned,” said Shaban Abu Ishaq, dragging a fragment of fabric from the surf in Khan Younis.
Residents cannot return to their destroyed homes in areas now under Israeli control. “It doesn’t work in summer or winter,” said 72-year-old Mohamed al-Sawalha from Jabaliya camp. “Even sheep don’t live like we do.”
Ceasefire Calm Masks Continuing Crisis
While fighting has slowed, violence has not fully ceased. UNICEF spokesman James Elder reported that at least 100 minors — 60 boys and 40 girls — have been killed by “military means” since the ceasefire began. “What the world now calls calm would be considered a crisis anywhere else,” Elder said from Gaza City.
The Gaza Health Ministry said a 1-year-old boy died of hypothermia overnight in Deir al-Balah, the latest in a string of cold-related deaths this winter. The child became the seventh victim of freezing temperatures since the season began, following the deaths of a 7-day-old baby and a 4-year-old girl earlier in the week.
The ministry, which is part of Gaza’s Hamas-run government, maintains detailed casualty records that U.N. officials say are generally credible. It reported that more than 440 people have been killed by Israeli fire during the ceasefire, and over 71,400 Palestinians have died since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023—a war that erupted when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages into Gaza.
Humanitarian and Educational Frontlines
UNRWA Commissioner General Dr. Philippe Lazzarini described conditions as “absolutely miserable” after meeting Pope Leo XIV in January 2026 to discuss the crisis. Speaking to Vatican Media, he said Gaza’s two million residents are now concentrated in less than half of the Strip. “Gaza is just a pile of ruins for now; everything needs to be rebuilt,” he said.
For weeks, the U.N. has grown increasingly alarmed by the worsening winter. Lazzarini warned that UNRWA faces “enormous political pressure” to end its operations — a move he said would leave a “huge void” in both assistance and education. “If we lose this generation,” he said, “we are laying the groundwork for greater extremism in the future.”
Despite the destruction, Lazzarini emphasized that education remains a cornerstone of hope. “Palestinians have lost their lands and homes,” he said, “but they have not lost education. It is something they continue to fight for.”
A Region Waiting for Relief
For Gaza’s families, the crisis has become cyclic — destruction, displacement, rebuilding, and grief, season after season. While bombs no longer fall daily, death still comes from the cold, the sea, or the collapse of a wall.
What began as a war has evolved into a relentless struggle for survival against the elements. In this winter of discontent, Gaza’s people endure not only the scars of war but also the unforgiving winds that tear away what little remains of home.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Crux Now
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