Chilly Gaza braces for more winter rain and word of any progress in ceasefire talks

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — 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 the war between Israel and Hamas 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, part of the Hamas-run government, has said dozens of people, including a two-week-old infant, have died from hypothermia or after weather-related collapses of war-damaged homes. Aid organizations have called for more shelters and other humanitarian aid to be allowed into the territory.

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.”

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 Oct. 10.

Though the agreement has mostly held, its progress has slowed. The remains of the final hostage taken during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war are still in Gaza. Challenges in the next phase of the ceasefire include the deployment of an international stabilization force, a technocratic governing body for Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and further Israeli troop withdrawals from the territory.

Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of truce violations.

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 the Israel-Hamas war has risen to at least 71,266, the ministry said, and another 171,219 have been wounded.

The ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its count, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community.

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 said a Palestinian attacker 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 towns that attackers come from or demolish homes belonging to the assailants’ families. Israel says that it helps to locate militant infrastructure and prevents future attacks. Rights watchdogs describe such actions as collective punishment.

AP video on Saturday showed Israeli bulldozers entering the town and soldiers patrolling.

“They announced a strict curfew,” resident Bilal Hanash said, as he and others described main roads being closed with dirt barriers, a practice that has grown during the war in Gaza. “So basically, they’re punishing 30,000 people.”

Find more of AP’s Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

Associated Press writer Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed.

Reham Al-Helou, 35, sits at the entrance of her tent as her children play outside in a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

2-year-old Sidra Obeid looks on as she stands in her family's tent in a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Siraj Obeid, 27, looks at her daughter as they stand in their tent in a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinian children stand on an area surrounded by makeshift tents in a camp for displaced people in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Shaimaa Wadi, 25, sits with her 1-year-old daughter Tala, inside their tent in a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Ask Behren Morton what he remembers most about the best season Texas Tech has ever had, and the quarterback might mention a game he didn't get to play because of an injury, which was also the Red Raiders' only loss.

That day in the Arizona desert in October stands out to Morton because the Lubbock native knows more than most about the largely forgettable football past on the plains of West Texas.

The Red Raiders were perfect six games into the season before the 26-22 loss to Arizona State, and the fifth-year senior was among those who thought the younger players needed a history lesson that next week.

“We brought everyone up, and we kind of said, ‘Is this going to be another year for Texas Tech where we win eight games and go make a decent bowl game, or do we have something special?’” Morton said.

The Red Raiders and their quarterback believe they're on the way to the answer.

Texas Tech (12-1) set a school record for wins by beating BYU 34-7 for the school's first Big 12 championship, also clinching a first-round bye in the College Football Playoff.

The No. 4 seed plays fifth-seeded Oregon (12-1), a first-round winner over James Madison, in an Orange Bowl quarterfinal on Thursday. Both teams have those same rankings in The Associated Press poll.

A career plagued by shoulder issues for Morton turned into a season of dealing with lower-body injuries — first what coach Joey McGuire said was a hyperextended knee, then what was reported as a hairline fracture in his right fibula.

The fracture was what kept Morton out against the Sun Devils and for a 42-0 victory over Oklahoma State when backup Will Hammond's season-ending knee injury forced Morton to put on his uniform at halftime. He didn't have to play.

All McGuire will say about the reported fibula injury is that the medical staff has made Morton wear a walking boot most of the time — against his will. He will have had nearly four weeks off before taking the field against the Ducks.

“This is for sure the best I’ve felt, probably since the Kansas game,” Morton said, referring to the Oct. 11 game in which the injury happened on a sack. “I’ve gotten to get out the boot a little bit, still in the boot here and there. But when we get to practice, coach lets me take the boot off and kind of get after it, so it’s been good.”

Morton was born in Lubbock when his father, James, was the head coach at one of the local high schools. He was the quarterback for his dad in Eastland, a small town 220 miles southeast of Texas Tech's campus.

Morton was a kid idolizing Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree, who combined for the most famous play in what before this year was the best season the Red Raiders ever had.

That 2008 team was 10-0, with a thrilling 39-33 victory over Texas on the Harrell-to-Crabtree touchdown with 1 second remaining before losing to Oklahoma, missing out on the BCS Championship — the two-team playoff era — and finishing 11-2.

Yes, even Morton considered leaving his beloved school in this era of the transfer portal. He went through another offensive coordinator change in the offseason.

Morton stayed, deciding instead to be part of the welcoming group for a high-priced transfer class that was considered among the best in the country. Several of those transfers mixed with holdover linebacker Jacob Rodriguez to turn Texas Tech into one of the best defenses in country, when defense had always been the thing holding the Red Raiders back.

“We say that we’re, ‘The Brand,’ which is the hardest, toughest-working, most competitive team in the country,” Morton said. “And from that day one, when those guys came in, we told them what the culture was, told them what ‘The Brand’ was, and they really embodied that. With having one year of eligibility left, you might think that guy’s coming in there just for himself. You know, he’s getting a lot of money, he’s going to go to the (NFL) next year, but that’s not been the case at all.”

McGuire won three Texas state championships as a high school coach in Cedar Hill, near Dallas. He and Morton share a loyalty to Lubbock and deep ties to the state's football-rich tradition.

That's probably why they had a conversation in June about winning a Big 12 championship at the home of the Dallas Cowboys, where all 12 of the high school title games are played each December.

And that's probably why Morton's dad sent McGuire a text the week of the Big 12 title game telling the coach to make sure he got a picture with the quarterback before they left AT&T Stadium.

McGuire relayed that message the morning of the game.

“We found each other, and we both got emotional,” Morton said. “I just love this university and everything it stands for. I think this town deserves championships to be brought back home.”

Morton isn't alone with that thought. He shares a fraternity with Harrell and three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City, who believe it or not never won a bowl game at Texas Tech. Harrell recruited him. Mahomes texts him all the time, when he's not there in person as he was for the rout of Oklahoma State.

And there was a time, 60 or so years ago, when the Red Raiders would flirt with contention from time to time in the old Southwest Conference.

“I still have that guy that’s about 85 years old texting me, telling me how proud he is of this team and to be a Red Raider,” Morton said. “It’s really nothing like I’ve ever seen.”

It's nothing like Lubbock has seen either.

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FILE - Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire looks on during the Big 12 Conference championship NCAA college football game between Texas Tech and BYU Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

FILE - Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton stands on the sideline in the second half of a Big 12 Conference championship NCAA college football game against BYU Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)