‘We’re dying from the cold’: Displaced Palestinians battle winter in Gaza

By Kareem El Damanhoury, Mohammad Al-Sawalhi and Eyad Kourdi, CNN

Deir Al-Balah, Gaza (CNN) — Standing barefoot in the mud with an empty container in hand at a crowded water station in central Gaza, Palestinian Alaa Al-Shawish is fearing the winter weather and looking for clean water for her family.

Her family are living in a makeshift tent in Deir Al-Balah, after being displaced from Gaza City amid heavy Israeli bombardment. But their new home holds deadly perils of its own.

“We’re dying from the cold. This is not life, this is not living – I pray every day that we die to be relieved from this life,” Alaa says as she fights back tears. “No food, no water, no life.”

Several Palestinians, including at least five babies, have died in recent days due to severe cold weather. The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned on Tuesday that “more babies will likely die” in the coming days.

The babies who died from hypothermia were all under one month old, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. A 2-year-old has also died from the cold in recent days, health officials said.

“I am watching my children die before my eyes,” says Yahya Al-Batran, the father of 20-day-old Jumaa, who died on Sunday. “He died from the cold, he froze,” he adds as he holds his child’s lifeless body at the hospital.

The cold weather has not only claimed the lives of children. On Friday, the health ministry said a nurse was found dead in his tent in Al-Mawasi on Friday due to severe cold.

Temperatures in Gaza can reach lows of 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit), accompanied by wind and rain.

Flooded makeshift tents

The winter has also brought with it heavy rainfall that has flooded tents housing displaced Palestinians across Gaza over the past couple of days.

The Gaza Civil Defense says it received hundreds of distress calls on Monday and Tuesday from displaced Palestinian families whose tents and shelters have been flooded in Al-Mawasi, Rafah, Deir Al-Balah and central Gaza City, among other locations across the strip.

More than 1,500 tents were flooded with over 30cm of rainwater, the Civil Defense said, damaging the little that people have and soaking bedding and belongs. Hundreds of other tents were also damaged by the rain and unusable until the water recedes.

CNN footage taken in Deir Al-Balah on Tuesday shows pools of water in the roads in between tents, children and adults shoveling mud. Mattresses, rugs, and clothes are soaking wet inside tents made of cloth and nylon.

More than 100 tents in Khan Younis have been extensively damaged by the heavy rain, UNRWA said on Tuesday.

“Displaced people, already living through the unlivable due to the war, are now battling heavy rainstorms,” UNRWA said.

The UN agency has called for Israel to allow the entry of more winter supplies into Gaza.

“Blankets, mattresses and warm clothes are sitting outside Gaza waiting for approval to get in,” UNRWA said on Tuesday. “More and regular humanitarian assistance must come into Gaza to help people stay warm this winter.”

According to COGAT, the Israeli agency that approves aid shipments into Gaza, 1,290 humanitarian aid trucks entered the strip last week. This is well below the average of 500 trucks per day before the war started on October 7, 2023.

Salem Abu Amra is among the civilians who are bearing the brunt of the cold and lacking supplies in Gaza. He says his family is “struggling for survival” in their makeshift tent in Deir Al-Balah.

“We are suffering from the rain, we were flooded,” he said. “I have three children who were freezing cold overnight in the camp from this weather. They need clothes, they need tents, proper tents that we can live in.”

CNN’s Nadeen Ebrahim and Abeer Salman contributed to this report.

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