Children freeze to death as Israel blocks aid delivery

Agency:

Several children, including a newborn girl, have died overnight in Gaza because of the cold weather as Israel continues to largely restrict the entry of tents and mobile homes into the Palestinian territory.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians across the Strip are living among the rubble of their destroyed homes, with strong winds and heavy rains turning makeshift shelters into barely liveable spaces.

Palestinians say Israel is carrying out war tactics employed in Gaza in the occupied West Bank.
Gaza’s Health Ministry has confirmed 48,346 Palestinian deaths in Israel’s war on Gaza, while 111,759 people have been wounded. The Government Media Office updated its death toll to at least 61,709, saying thousands of Palestinians missing under the rubble are presumed dead. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks and more than 200 taken captive. And, when night falls over northern Gaza, much of the cityscape of collapsed buildings and piled wreckage turns pitch black.

Living inside the ruins of their home, Rawya Tamboura’s young sons get afraid of the dark, so she turns on a flashlight and her phone’s light to comfort them, for as long as the batteries last.

Displaced for most of the 16-month-long war, Tamboura is back in her house. But it is still a frustrating shell of a life, she says: There is no running water, electricity, heat or services, and no tools to clear the rubble around them. Nearly 600,000 Palestinians flooded back into northern Gaza under the now month-old ceasefire in Gaza, according to the United Nations. After initial relief and joy at being back at their homes – even if damaged or destroyed – they now face the reality of living in the wreckage for the foreseeable future.