Israel continues to block vital necessities, such as mobile homes, as the Palestinian enclave is hit by harsh weather conditions.
A seven-day-old infant has died due to the extreme cold in the Gaza Strip as the Israeli blockade of vital necessities worsens the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave.
Medical sources told Al Jazeera on Saturday that Mahmoud Al-Aqraa died in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza amid rapidly decreasing temperatures.
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Palestinians living in makeshift tents have little protection from strong winds and rain, as most shelters are made of thin canvas and plastic sheeting.
Israel continues to limit the number of tents and sustainable shelters entering Gaza, in violation of the ceasefire it agreed with Hamas in October as well as its obligations under international law as the occupying power in the Strip.
It has also blocked other vital necessities, such as mobile homes, as well as tools and materials to fix damaged tents.
Temperatures at night in Gaza have fallen to as low as nine degrees Celsius (48 degrees Fahrenheit) in recent days.
In a statement, Gaza’s Civil Defence said on Friday that “every low-pressure system turns into a humanitarian disaster in light of the prevention of the entry of building materials and the disruption of reconstruction”.
The organisation warned of a “catastrophe” due to the “low-pressure system that caused serious damage to temporary shelters, and thousands of tents were completely damaged”.
It also urged citizens to secure their tents to prevent them from being blown away, given that mobile homes are not allowed to enter.
“What is happening is not a weather crisis, but a direct result of preventing the entry of building materials and disrupting reconstruction, as people are living in torn tents and cracked houses without safety or dignity,” Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal said.
He also said Palestinians were forced to set up their tents on the beach due to the lack of available space inside the cities as a result of the extensive Israeli destruction of them.
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Gaza City, said many tents she visited have been destroyed.
“There is no way to fix these tents, because the families do not have the materials to do that,” she said, adding that people whose tents have been destroyed are forced to look for somewhere else to stay, becoming displaced over and over again.
The meteorological authority in Gaza has warned that strong winds are expected to continue alongside a further drop in temperatures.
In a statement to the AFP news agency last week, Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza, said about 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents have lost their homes in Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the territory.
Of more than 300,000 tents requested to shelter displaced people, “we have received only 60,000”, said Shawan, pointing to Israeli restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The Israeli military also demolished residential buildings in areas under its control southeast of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in the enclave have been destroyed or damaged by Israel during its more than two-year war, according to the United Nations.
Meanwhile, sources in Gaza’s hospitals reported that Israeli troops killed three Palestinians and injured seven more in attacks across the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
In one incident, an Israeli quadcopter killed a Palestinian man who was being transferred to a hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that two men had been killed by Israeli military gunfire east of the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City.
It also reported that there had been several casualties in an Israeli air strike on the entrance to the Maghazi camp in central Gaza and that Israeli artillery continued to target the outskirts of Rafah in the south of the Strip.