Howling winds send walls crashing down on Gaza tent camps, killing 4

DEIR AL BALAH: At least four people were killed overnight in Gaza after walls collapsed onto their tents from strong winds that lashed the Palestinian coastal territory, hospital authorities said Tuesday. Dangerous living conditions persist in Gaza after more than two years of devastating Israeli bombardment and aid shortfalls. A ceasefire has been in effect since October 10. But aid groups say that Gazans broadly lack the shelter necessary to withstand frequent winter storms.

The dead include two women, a girl and a man, according to the Shifa hospital, Gaza City’s largest hospital, which received the casualties.

Three of the dead were from the same family — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter and his daughter-in-law. They were killed when an 8-metre-high wall collapsed onto their tent in a coastal area along the Mediterranean shore of Gaza City, the hospital said. At least five others were injured in that collapse.

Their relatives arrived Tuesday morning to remove the rubble and begin rebuilding the tent shelters for the survivors. “The world has allowed us to witness death in all its forms,” Bassel Hamouda said after the funeral for his relatives. “It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip.”

The second woman was killed when a wall fell on her tent in the western part of the city, the hospital said.

In the central town of Zawaida, Associated Press images showed inundated tents Tuesday morning, with people trying to rebuild their shelters.