The parents of 8-month-old Rahaf Abu Jazar woke up on Thursday morning to find their baby blue in the lips and with cold and stiff limbs. She had frozen to death after heavy rainfall seeped through the tent while everyone was asleep, soaking through Rahaf’s clothes.
Hajar Abu Jazar, 32, says her daughter was a healthy baby and did not suffer from any illness or preexisting condition. Hajar lives with her husband and seven of their children in a tent encampment in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Hajar says that she is afraid that Rahaf won’t be the only one of her children who freezes to death or suffers harm from the severe weather conditions.
“Yesterday, she was playing with her siblings and had no complaints,” she told Mondoweiss. “We went to bed and woke up the next day and found that her clothes were soaked through. She froze to death in her sleep.”
Local authorities report that the severe cold front that hit the Gaza Strip on Thursday has claimed the lives of 13 people as of Friday afternoon local time. Accompanied by heavy rainfall that has led to severe flooding in tent encampments for the displaced, the storm also led to the collapse of partially destroyed buildings where Palestinians had sought shelter from the weather.
According to the Government Media Office in Gaza, the storm swept away or flooded over 27,000 tents, carried off by flash floods or uprooted by strong winds. The storm has also led to the collapse of at least 13 buildings in Gaza, the latest of which was in the Karama and Sheikh Radwan neighborhoods in Gaza City.
“The occupation continues to close crossings and prevent the entry of humanitarian aid and materials that could provide shelter,” the Media Office said in a statement on Friday. “This includes blocking the entry of 300,000 tents, prefabricated mobile homes, and caravans.”
Between Thursday and Friday, two infants and a 9-year-old girl died due to the cold, while six other victims were killed when their home collapsed on top of them in north Gaza. In Gaza City, another three Palestinian residents died when the walls of the building where they had sought shelter collapsed due to wind and heavy rainfall.
According to the Government Media Office, about 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza are living in worn-out tents that do little to protect them from cold fronts, storm-like conditions, and harsh weather systems.
Karima Abed Rabbo, 54, woke up in the middle of the night to find the mattress she sleeps on in her tent submerged in water. “I woke up half-submerged,” Abed Rabbo tells Mondoweiss. “But there was nothing to do. I had no choice but to stay where I was and cry like a child.”
This is the second night in a row that Abed Rabbo and her family have had to endure flooding in their tent, soaking through their clothes, bedding, and all of their belongings. Everyone else in her tent encampment is living in the same conditions.
Abed Rabbo lives in a tent with two of her grown sons and their wives, alongside seven of her grandchildren. She says she fears that one of her grandchildren, especially the young ones, might eventually freeze to death. She recounts how on the first night of the storm, she woke up and found her grandson completely soaked in water, still asleep. She woke him up and hurried over to a corner of the tent where she keeps clean and dry clothes, only to discover that they were soaked through. She tried to dry him off with anything she could find and attempted to put him back to sleep, but everything was wet — pillows, floor mattresses, sheets, blankets.
“I spent hours holding him while soaking. We kept waiting for the morning so we could go out and find anything to dry the child,” she said.
