Barefoot children played on chilly sand as Gaza 's thousands of displaced people prepared threadbare tents on Saturday for another round of winter rain.
Some families in the central town of Deir al-Balah said they had been living in tents for about two years, or for most of Israel's genocidal war that has devastated the territory.
Fathers braced fraying tents with old pieces of wood or inspected the ragged edges of holes torn in tarps. Inside the dim homes, daylight through tiny holes shone like stars.
Mothers battled the damp, slinging clothing over poles or cord to dry in the wind between the downpours that turn paths into puddles. One mother pulled a tiny child away from a mildewing patch of carpet.
"We have been living in this tent for two years. Every time it rains and the tent collapses over our heads, we try to put up new pieces of wood," said Shaima Wadi, a mother of four children who was displaced from Jabaliya in the north. "With how expensive everything has become, and without any income, we can barely afford clothes for our children or mattresses for them to sleep on."
Gaza's Health Ministry has said dozens of people, including a two-week-old infant, have died from hypothermia or after weather-related collapses of war-damaged homes, even as Israel only allowed the entry of limited aid into the territory. Aid organizations have called for more shelters and other humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza.
Emergency workers have warned people not to stay in damaged buildings. But with so much of the territory reduced to rubble, there are few places to escape the rain.
"I collect nylon, cardboard and plastic from the streets to keep them warm," said Ahmad Wadi, who burns the materials or uses them as a kind of blanket for loved ones. "They don't have proper covers. It is freezing, the humidity is high, and water seeps in from everywhere. I don't know what to do."
Ceasefire talks
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit Washington in the coming days as negotiators and others discuss the second stage of the ceasefire that took effect on October 10.
The ceasefire agreement has been violated several times by Israel, killing hundreds of Palestinians.
Gaza's Health Ministry said that since the ceasefire went into effect, 414 Palestinians have been killed and 1,142 wounded. It said the bodies of 679 people were pulled from the rubble during the same period as the truce makes it safer to search for the remains of people killed earlier.
The ministry on Saturday said 29 bodies, including 25 that were recovered from under the rubble, had been brought to local hospitals over the past 48 hours.
The overall Palestinian death toll from Israel's genocidal war has risen to at least 71,266, the ministry said, and another 171,219 have been wounded.
Challenges in the next phase of the ceasefire include the deployment of an international stabilization force, a technocratic governing body for Gaza, the demands raised by Israel and the US to disarm Hamas and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troop from the occuppied territories.
West Bank operation
Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, said in a statement Saturday that a military operation continued in a town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank a day after police alleged that a Palestinian rammed his car into a man and then stabbed a young woman in northern Israel on Friday afternoon, killing both.
The statement said the army had surrounded the town of Qabatiya, where Katz said the attacker was from, and was operating "forcefully" there. Authorities on Friday said the attacker was shot and injured in Afula. He was taken to a hospital.
It's common practice for Israel to launch raids in the West Bank or demolish homes belonging to Palestinians accused of attacking Israelis. Israel says that it helps to locate militant infrastructure and prevents future attacks. Rights watchdogs describe such actions as collective punishment.
(With inputs from Online Desk)