By SCM REPORTER
GAZA is facing a “season of mass death” as a brutal polar weather front slams into the war-torn strip, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced families freezing in “uninhabitable” tents.
In a harrowing update from the ground, Gaza officials have confirmed that 21 people have already died from the extreme cold—including 18 tragic children who perished in displacement camps.
Ismail Al-Thawabteh, Director of the Gaza Government Media Office, warned that the territory is being subjected to a policy of “slow killing.”
As temperatures plummet, the sheer scale of the shelter crisis has been laid bare:
127,000 out of 135,000 tents are now classified as uninhabitable.
70% shortage of blankets, bedding, and heating supplies across the region.
Two million people have been displaced, with many forced to sleep on damp, frozen ground.
“The crisis is sharp and suffocating,” Al-Thawabteh said.
“Children, women, and the elderly are sleeping on the ground in worn-out tents that offer no protection from the wind or rain.”
The humanitarian catastrophe is being fueled by a “total destruction” of infrastructure. With 90% of Gaza’s infrastructure ruined, there is nowhere left for the 288,000 homeless families to go.
The situation is made even more desperate by the continued closure of border crossings.
Officials claim a quarter-million aid and fuel trucks have been blocked, leaving the population without the means to stay warm or cook food.
Treating the inevitable surge in sickness has become “nearly impossible.”
With 38 hospitals destroyed and 96 healthcare centers out of service, tens of thousands are suffering from respiratory and infectious diseases with no hope of medicine.
The Media Office is now making an urgent plea for international intervention to provide safe shelter and heating before the winter claims even more lives.
