STORM Byron has swept across the Gaza Strip, killing at least 14 people and injuring others as harsh winds, relentless rain and collapsing structures crush families already displaced by Israel’s devastating assault on the enclave, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Interior and National Security.
The ministry said five people died overnight into Friday after a house sheltering displaced civilians in Bir an-Naaja, in northern Gaza, collapsed during the storm.
At dawn, two more people were killed when a wall gave way and fell onto tents in Gaza City’s Remal neighbourhood. A day earlier, another person died after a structural collapse in Shati refugee camp, while a newborn in al-Mawasi succumbed to the freezing temperatures.
Medical staff in Gaza report an alarming rise in deaths linked to exposure. A source at al-Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera Arabic that nine-year-old Hadeel al-Masri died in a shelter west of Gaza City, while baby Taim al-Khawaja died in Shati camp.
In Khan Younis, eight-month-old Rahaf Abu Jazar died after rain flooded her family’s tent.
Relatives said the family had been seeking refuge in a roofless, bombed-out home after an Israeli air strike destroyed their own house.
“Yesterday, we were surprised to hear his mother screaming, saying, ‘My son is blue!’ so we carried the boy and went to al-Rantisi Hospital,” the child’s grandfather said. “His temperature remained between 33 and 34 degrees [Celsius; 91.4 – 93.2 degrees Fahrenheit], which has affected all his organs. His brain began to deteriorate, and that was the end of it.”
“Officials are warning that there could be floods, heavy rain and hail, continuing through today. It is expected to threaten some 850,000 people, including many children, sheltering in 761 sites,” he reported.
“Here, tents have been destroyed due to the heavy rain and wind, leaving families facing ruined makeshift shelters.”
Large sections of the shoreline have collapsed, further endangering tents pitched metres from the sea.
Al-Khalili said families, pushed from place to place through more than two years of Israeli bombardment, now face “an added layer of suffering”.
“The tents are collapsing; the cold is unbearable. Basically, they don’t have anywhere to go. What is unfolding is devastating,” he said. “It’s not just a storm; it’s a new wave of displacement even after the war has stopped. Many people here told me that a new war has really begun after this flooding, and people are being forced to flee whatever fragile shelters they had.”
Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said at least 10 houses collapsed in the last 24 hours, with more expected to crumble at any time.
Palestinians remain inside these buildings because they have no tarpaulins, no tents and no alternative shelter as Israeli authorities continue to block winterisation supplies.
Civil defence crews say they retrieved one body and rescued two injured children from the rubble in Bir an-Naaja, with more people believed trapped beneath collapsed homes.
The Ministry of Interior said emergency teams have received more than 4,300 distress calls since the storm began, and recorded at least 12 collapses of buildings previously hit by Israeli strikes.
Despite having almost no equipment or fuel, police and civil defence teams continue rescue operations, the ministry said. It urged international actors to pressure Israel to allow critical aid and shelter materials into the Strip.
“What is happening now is a wake-up call for everyone to face up to their responsibilities,” the statement read.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem described the deaths linked to the storm as a “continuation of the war of extermination” and evidence of the catastrophic conditions Israel’s bombardment has left behind.
“The successive collapses of homes bombed during the war of extermination on the Gaza Strip, caused by the storm, and the resulting deaths, reflect the unprecedented scale of the humanitarian disaster left by this criminal Zionist war,” he said.