Gaza city: Two Palestinians lost their lives, and several others sustained injuries as heavy rains and strong winds battered the Gaza Strip, medical authorities reported on Sunday.

According to Anadolu Agency, the fatalities occurred when the wall of a house, previously damaged in Israeli attacks, collapsed onto a tent housing displaced civilians in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City. This tragic incident claimed the life of a 30-year-old woman and injured several of her family members. In a separate incident, a seven-year-old child drowned in a well in the Northern Governorate, as confirmed by the Gaza Civil Defense.

Civil defense teams engaged in extended efforts to recover the child's body and to mitigate the impact of the severe weather. They worked tirelessly to rescue those trapped in flooded tents and to clear drains and sewers to manage the water levels. The intense rainfall and high winds have devastated the region, flooding and toppling thousands of tents housing displaced individuals, as reported by an Anadolu correspondent and eyewitnesses.

The situation is dire in areas such as Khan Younis, where hundreds of tents erected on the beach have been inundated by rising sea waves triggered by the low-pressure weather system. Gaza has been grappling with extreme weather conditions in recent months, with previous storms resulting in the deaths of 17 Palestinians, including four children. The destruction is exacerbated by the collapse of buildings previously weakened by Israeli bombardments.

Sami Asaliya, a resident of the Nuseirat refugee camp, called for the urgent provision of mobile homes to replace the inadequate tents that fail to offer protection against the elements. Similarly, Hadiya Atiya Farajallah, an elderly woman, expressed her despair as she watched her tent flood, lamenting the loss of several family members and the inability of her elderly husband to provide assistance.

The ongoing harsh weather conditions have heightened the risks for displaced Palestinians residing in dilapidated tents or buildings deemed unsafe due to repeated Israeli strikes since October 2023. The Israeli military campaign has resulted in the deaths of over 71,200 people, predominantly women and children, and left more than 171,200 injured, compounding the humanitarian crisis in the devastated enclave.