Winter in the Gaza Strip is no longer the season once welcomed by Palestinians as a bearer of “life-giving rain.” Instead, it has become a season of terrifying death and heavy waiting beneath the rubble of destroyed homes and inside tattered displacement tents. This unfolds as the Zionist enemy authorities continue to tighten their grip around Gaza’s neck by preventing the entry of even the most basic shelter and reconstruction materials, reneging on all obligations stipulated in the ceasefire agreements signed last October.

Tents at the Mercy of the Wind

With the arrival of the most recent weather depression, the lives of displaced Palestinians turned into a blazing hell of cold and floodwaters. The spokesperson for the Civil Defense, Mahmoud Basal, stated in an official statement that violent winds reaching speeds of 60 kilometers per hour caused thousands of tents to be blown away or completely damaged, particularly those forcibly erected along the seashore due to the widespread destruction inflicted on cities by the Israeli enemy army.

In his analysis of this catastrophic scene, Basal stressed that what residents are experiencing is not merely a passing “weather crisis,” but rather a direct and systematic result of Zionist obstruction policies that prevent the entry of construction materials and mobile homes (caravans). He affirmed that Palestinians are living in torn tents and cracked homes that lack the most basic standards of human dignity, turning every weather depression into an inevitable humanitarian disaster that claims lives and multiplies suffering under a merciless siege.

Gaza Exposes the Falsehood of International Human Rights

The field reality, soaked in children’s tears and the groans of the elderly, reflects the brutality of the ongoing Zionist genocide through new methods. The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that weather depressions since the beginning of winter have led to the martyrdom of 12 Palestinians. Eleven of them were killed due to the collapse of buildings already weakened by previous Zionist bombardment, in addition to a newborn infant, no more than two weeks old, who died from the severe cold gnawing at Gazans’ bodies amid the absence of heating and medicines, which the enemy prevents from entering the Strip.

In the same context, the Civil Defense documented the complete collapse of more than 17 residential buildings and dangerous partial collapses in another 90 buildings, threatening the lives of thousands. Mahmoud Basal confirmed to media outlets that approximately 90% of shelters and tents across the Strip were damaged or completely flooded, destroying the displaced people’s clothing and bedding and leaving them to face death by drowning or freezing.

Many Methods of Extermination, One Death

During media tours of displacement camps, the tragedy of an elderly Palestinian woman stands out. Her dreams dissolved beneath the ceiling of a tent, leaking water onto her disabled husband and daughters. She said bitterly:
“All night it kept raining, and the tent was dripping. I put pots under the leaks, but by morning, the rain was so heavy that the water flooded over us. I’m dying from the cold, I have nothing to wear, and I don’t know where to go tonight.”

This cry encapsulates the condition of millions of Palestinians who have come to realize that a world claiming to “protect human rights” is nothing more than a silent partner in Zionist criminality—an entity that killed, destroyed, besieged, and now defies all by blocking the entry of basic necessities that, once stipulated in agreements, should never have been criminalized. This reality would not exist were it not for the United Nations’ complicity in the Zionist project.

Reinforcing this assessment, the “Hurriya” coalition of human rights institutions confirmed that the Zionist enemy uses the prevention of humanitarian aid and control of crossings as a method of warfare aimed at the total or partial destruction of the Palestinian people. This constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, particularly as the United Nations has estimated reconstruction costs at approximately $70 billion to repair what the Zionist-American war machine destroyed over two years of comprehensive genocide.

Cries from the Mud

The chapters of tragedy in Gaza come together to form a bloody epic written by Zionist criminality, collusion, and international silence. The Zionist enemy has not only destroyed homes over the heads of their residents but has also stripped Palestinians of their most basic right to shelter from cold, rain, and wind—an act of genocide employing multiple tools but leading to one outcome: death.

As Civil Defense crews attempted to salvage what remained of torn tents, the cry of “Umm Khalil” emerged from a cracked shelter school in Gaza City. She described the night of the weather depression as a “minor Doomsday,” pointing to a ceiling dripping mud and water and saying:
“We moved from the rain of bombs to the rain of mud. Water pours on us through cracks left by Zionist shelling. My children sleep standing because the ground is completely flooded, and the Zionist enemy even prevents us from getting a piece of nylon to cover our heads.”

In another corner of pain, the young man “Salem” embodies the height of helplessness as he tries to ignite bits of plastic and worn-out clothes to warm his sick mother. He expressed the bitterness of reality, saying:
“We are choosing between dying from freezing or dying from suffocation by the smoke of primitive fires. The Zionist enemy has closed all paths of life before us, while international organizations merely count our corpses. We have come to see the rain—once awaited for agriculture and life—as a white shroud wrapping the entire Gaza Strip.”

These living testimonies, intersecting with what Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal documented regarding the collapse of damaged homes, confirm that the catastrophe in Gaza is not fate but a crime manufactured by a Zionist-American hand. Every tool of destruction has been used against a people who refuse to be broken, while Palestinians face winter with bare chests and empty stomachs, echoing the words of the elderly woman whose bedding was submerged in water:
“Whoever did not stand by you while you were drowning in your blood will not stand by you when you drown in water.”

Extermination by Cold

The Zionist enemy has transformed raindrops in Gaza into an instrument of mass execution, chasing more than two million people, persisting in siege and the denial of shelter as a weapon of comprehensive destruction that complements the military war machine.

Field data issued by the Palestinian Civil Defense, through its spokesperson Mahmoud Basal, confirms that what the Strip is witnessing today goes beyond the bounds of a humanitarian crisis. The enemy’s prevention of caravans and construction materials has effectively led to the flooding of 90% of shelters, turning the lives of the displaced into a second displacement journey through mud and water invading tents from above and below.

This catastrophic deterioration is a direct result of the Zionist entity’s evasion of its obligations under the ceasefire agreement signed last October, which stipulated the entry of caravans and shelter materials. Instead, the Israeli enemy deliberately keeps residents in fragile environments and cracked homes. The Ministry of Health documented this outcome with the martyrdom of 12 Palestinians, including an infant who died from cold, and others crushed beneath the rubble of homes that collapsed due to moisture and wind after having been weakened by earlier Zionist shelling.

The brutality of this policy is evident in the testimonies of Gaza’s residents documented by the media. These accounts reflect a reality imposed by the enemy authorities to humiliate Palestinians and strip them of their dignity, amid a disturbing international silence that settles for the role of spectator as the falsehood of human rights collapses daily beneath the feet of children submerged in sewage and rainwater.

Based on all of the above, the tragic situation in Gaza once again confirms that the world is facing a criminal enemy that excels in inventing new forms of killing and extermination without regard for any laws or agreements. This reality necessitates a deterrent military stance to lift the suffering of the Palestinian people before the Zionist danger engulfs all of humanity.