‘The cold killed her’: 8-month-old dies as Storm Byron soaks Gaza displacement camps
Another Palestinian said killed by wall that collapsed due to heavy rainfall, as Hamas accuses Israel of refusing to let in mobile homes
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
A baby girl died in southern Gaza on Thursday as a result of the severe cold brought on by Storm Byron, Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital said, and another Palestinian was reportedly killed by a collapsing wall, as heavy rain flooded the tents of Palestinians displaced by the war with Israel.
The deceased infant was identified as Rahaf Abu Jazar, aged 8 months. According to Arabic media, she died in a displaced people’s tent in the coastal Mawasi area near Khan Younis, where her family had fled from Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city.
It was the first weather-related death reported in Gaza this winter season. At least eight newborns died of hypothermia last winter, according to the United Nations.
Footage from Nasser Hospital showed Abu Jazar’s father, Ahmed, speaking to reporters while clutching her prone body, surrounded by grieving relatives.
The family’s tent was drenched with rain and sewage when Rahaf died, Ahmed said. “The cold killed her,” he said. “Nobody’s talking about the children. They’re dying one by one.”
Weeping and holding Rahaf in her hands, her mother, Hejar, said she had fed the girl before they went to sleep.
“When we woke up, we found the rain over her and the wind on her, and the girl died of cold suddenly,” she told Reuters. “There was nothing wrong with her.”
???? وفاة الرضيعة رهف أبو جزر (8 أشهر) من شدة البرد في خان يونس، نتيجة إبقاء النازحين داخل خيام هشة بعد منع الاحتلال دخول الكرافانات pic.twitter.com/7Zw894EDcq
— فلسطين أون لايـن (@F24online) December 11, 2025
OCHA, the United Nations humanitarian affairs agency, said in a daily update Tuesday that 850,000 people living in 761 displacement sites across the Strip faced the highest risk of flooding as the storm approached.
Hamas’s civil defense agency on Thursday estimated that nine-in-ten of roughly 125,000 displaced people’s tents in the Strip were flooded.
Footage on social media showed tent camps flooded in dirty water, sometimes knee deep. In a video from central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah published by Al Jazeera photojournalist Mahmoud Awad, four men, three of whom are barefoot, carry an old woman through an ankle-deep pool of muddy water.
إنقاذ سيدة بعد غرق خيمتها من الأمطار في دير البلح وسط قطاع غزة pic.twitter.com/YaLh9ZIzhU
— الجزيرة مباشر (@ajmubasher) December 11, 2025
The woman, who is wrapped in blankets and lying on a blanket, is recovering from surgery and had to be moved to a more secure location to receive the proper treatment, according to Awad.
In the nearby refugee camp of Maghazi, Mazen Abu Darabi woke up his wife and seven children in the middle of the night to salvage what they could as their tent flooded, according to WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency.
“The rain washed away some food and soaked the mattresses and blankets and kids’ clothes,” Abu Darabi told WAFA. “I don’t know how we’ll make it through the winter.”
At a tent encampment in Khan Younis, some men used shovels to remove water and dirt blocking access to shelters, while others prepared sandbags to protect tents against heavy winds and rain.
“Look at this. How am I supposed to let the children sleep? Tell me how?” said Umm Mohammed Abd Elaal as she checked on her tent, toppled by the winds.
“There’s nothing [we can do]. The bedding gets soaked with water, and we need two or three days to dry it before we can sleep on it again. These tents don’t protect from rain or strong weather at all,” said her neighbor, Ahmed Salem.
Palestinian said killed after wall collapses from rainfall
Separately, a Palestinian was killed by a wall that collapsed from the rainfall in Gaza City’s western Shati refugee camp on Thursday, Al Jazeera reported, citing a source in the emergency services.
Hamas’s civil defense agency reported earlier that at least three buildings had partially collapsed across Gaza due to the heavy rain. No injuries were reported.
Footage captured by a first responder in Gaza City’s Nasser neighborhood showed part of a bombed-out, four-story building give way.
The Hamas agency warned people not to seek shelter in buildings damaged by Israel, and accused the country of refusing to let mobile homes into Gaza to replace the tents.
انهيار بناء من أربعة طوابق في غزة، تعرض سابقاً للتدمير بسبب القصف الإسرائيلي . pic.twitter.com/f9Q4NEeiEx
— رؤى لدراسات الحرب (@Roaastudies) December 11, 2025
A spokeswoman for COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry body responsible for coordinating aid to Gaza, did not respond to a request for comment.
In October, after Israel and Hamas secured the current ceasefire deal, the United Nations reported that over half of Gaza’s buildings were destroyed since the war in the Strip was sparked by the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.
During the previous Gaza ceasefire, Israel let in some heavy construction equipment and mobile homes into Gaza.
The Times of Israel Community.