Sufferings aggravated | Palestinians face cold, unseasonal rain, shortage of food, water, medicine and shelter amid constant bombardment

Cold hand of baby Sila, and Palestinians inspect the damage in Gaza City's al-Zaitoun neighbourhood on Thursday —AFP

Ceasefire talks

Hopes for a ceasefire looked complicated on Wednesday, with Israel and the militant Hamas group that runs Gaza trading accusations of delaying an agreement. In recent weeks, the two sides appeared to be inching toward a deal that would bring home dozens of hostages held by the militants in Gaza, but differences have emerged.

Agencies GAZA 

A baby girl has frozen to death in Gaza and at least 10 people have been killed by airstrikes, while Israel and Hamas accused each other of complicating ceasefire efforts that could wind down the 14-month war.The three-week-old baby, Sila,  was the third to die from the cold in Gaza’s tent camps in recent days, doctors said.

Sila’s father, Mahmoud al-Faseeh, wrapped her in a blanket to try to keep her warm in their tent in the Muwasi area outside the town of Khan Younis, but it was not enough, he told the Associated Press.

“It was very cold overnight and as adults we couldn’t even take it. We couldn’t stay warm,” he said. Sila woke up crying three times overnight and in the morning, they found her unresponsive, her body stiff.

The death underscore the squalid conditions there, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crammed into often ramshackle tents after fleeing Israeli offensives. With temperatures plummeting, many people have been falling sick. There  have been instances of waterlogging by  rainwater and sewage.

“My children’s feet, their heads—everything is freezing,” Shaima Issa told  the BBC in Khan Younis. “We’re living on the streets, surrounded by strips of fabric. Everyone here is sick and coughing.” Her neighbour, Salwa Abu Nimer,“When it rains, we’re drenched,” added her neighbour, Salwa Abu Nimer. “The heavy rain floods us, and we don’t have a waterproof cover. The water seeps into the tent, we wear our clothes wet.

“No flour, no food, no drink, no shelter,” she went on. “What is this life I’m living? I go to the ends of the earth just to feed my children,”  The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times.

Hundreds of thousands are packed into tent camps along the coast as the cold, wet winter sets in. Aid groups have struggled to deliver food and supplies and say there are shortages of blankets, warm clothing and firewood.

Israel has increased the amount of aid it allows into the territory, reaching an average of 130 trucks a day so far this month, up from about 70 a day in October and November. But  it is not enough.

10 killed in Israeli strikes

Amid the daily struggle of the common  people,  five people were killed and 20 wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood early on Thursday, the Gaza health authorities reported. 

In another incident, five journalists were killed when their vehicle was struck in the vicinity of Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in central Gaza, health authorities said. The journalists worked for the Al-Quds Al-Youm television channel.

Palestinian media and local reporters said the vehicle was marked as a media van. The Israeli army said its air force attacked the vehicle in a “targeted manner” and that members of the Islamic Jihad militant group were inside.