Howling winds send walls crashing down on Gaza tent camps, killing 4

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — At least four people were killed overnight in Gaza after walls collapsed onto their tents from strong winds that lashed the Palestinian coastal territory, hospital authorities said Tuesday.

Dangerous living conditions persist in Gaza after more than two years of devastating Israeli bombardment and aid shortfalls. A ceasefire has been in effect since Oct. 10. But aid groups say that Gazans broadly lack the shelter necessary to withstand frequent winter storms.

The dead include two women, a girl and a man, according to the Shifa hospital, Gaza City’s largest hospital, which received the casualties.

Three of the dead were from the same family — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter and his daughter-in-law. They were killed when an 8-meter-high (26-foot-high) wall collapsed onto their tent in a coastal area along the Mediterranean shore of Gaza City, the hospital said. At least five others were injured in that collapse.

Their relatives arrived Tuesday morning to remove the rubble and begin rebuilding the tent shelters for the survivors.

“The world has allowed us to witness death in all its forms,” Bassel Hamouda said after the funeral for his relatives. “It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip.”

The second woman was killed when a wall fell on her tent in the western part of the city, the hospital said.

In the central town of Zawaida, Associated Press images showed inundated tents Tuesday morning, with people trying to rebuild their shelters.

Yasmin Shalha, a displaced woman from the northern town of Beit Lahiya, stood against winds that caused the tarps of tents to flap around her as she stitched hers back together with needle and thread. She said that it had fallen on top of her family the night before, as they slept.

“The winds were very, very strong. The tent collapsed over us,” the mother of five told the AP as she was sewing a sheet torn apart by the winds. “As you can see, our situation is dire.”

Mohamed al-Sawalha, a 72-year-old man from the northern refugee camp of Jabaliya, criticized the conditions that most Gazans endure.

“It doesn’t work neither in summer nor in winter,” he said of the tent. “We left behind houses and buildings (with) doors that could be opened and closed. Now we live in a tent. Even sheep don’t live like we do.”

The majority of Palestinians live in makeshift tents since their homes were reduced to rubble during the war. When storms now strike the territory, Palestinian rescue workers warn people against seeking shelter inside damaged buildings, saying they could fall down on top of them.

Aid groups say not enough shelter materials are entering Gaza during the truce.

Israel’s bombing campaign has reduced entire neighborhoods to rubble and half-standing structures. Residents aren't able to return to their homes in Israeli-controlled areas of the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian territory's population of more than 2 million people have been struggling to keep the cold weather, including rain and severe storms, at bay, amid shortage of humanitarian aid and Israel’s ban of caravans that are badly needed during the winter months. It's the third winter since the war between Israel and Hamas started on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants stormed into southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people and abducted 251 into Gaza.

As of Monday, at least six children as young as seven days, died of hypothermia since the start of winter, according to the health ministry.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, said that 442 people were killed by Israeli fire and their bodies brought to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect just over three months ago. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

Samy Magdy reported from Cairo.

Palestinians repair their tents after they were damaged by a storm at a displacement camp in Gaza City, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A view of a displacement camp sheltering Palestinians on a beach amid stormy weather in Gaza City, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A man carries a piece of wood at a displacement camp sheltering Palestinians on a beach amid stormy weather in Gaza City, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Members of the Hamouda family bid farewell to relatives who died when a damaged building collapsed onto their tents during a storm of wind and rain, at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

People inspect the site where at least four Palestinians died following the collapse of walls onto tents sheltering displaced people in Gaza City amid rainfall and strong winds, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

PARIS (AP) — France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen returned to court Tuesday to appeal an embezzlement conviction, with her 2027 presidential ambitions hanging on the outcome of the case.

Le Pen, 57, is seeking to overturn a March ruling that found her guilty of misusing European Parliament funds. She was given a five-year ban from holding elected office, two years of house arrest with an electronic bracelet, a further two-year suspended sentence and a 100,000-euro ($116,800) fine.

“I hope I'll be able to convince the judges of my innocence,” Le Pen told reporters Monday. “It’s a new court with new judges. The case will be reset, so to speak.”

The appeals trial is scheduled to last for five weeks, with a verdict expected at a later date.

She was seen as the potential front-runner to succeed President Emmanuel Macron in the 2027 election until last year's ruling, which sent shock waves through French politics. Le Pen denounced it as “a democratic scandal.”

Her National Rally party has been coming out on top in opinion polls, and Le Pen alleged that the judicial system brought out “the nuclear bomb” to prevent her from becoming France’s president.

The appeal trial, involving Le Pen and 11 other defendants, is scheduled to last for five weeks. A panel of three judges at the appeals court in Paris is expected to announce its verdict at a later date, possibly before summer.

Several scenarios are possible, from acquittal to another conviction that may or may not bar her from running in 2027. She could also face an even tougher punishment if convicted anew — up to 10 years in prison and a 1-million euro ($1.17 million) fine.

In March, Le Pen and other party officials were convicted of using money intended for EU parliamentary assistants who instead had other duties between 2004 and 2016, in violation of EU rules. Some actually did work for the party, known as the National Front at the time, in French domestic politics, the court said.

In handing down the sentence, the judge said Le Pen was at the heart of a “system” set up to siphon off EU parliament funds — including to pay for her bodyguard and her chief of staff.

All suspects denied wrongdoing, and Le Pen argued the money was used in a legitimate way. The judge said Le Pen and the others did not enrich themselves personally.

The legal proceedings initially stemmed from a 2015 alert raised by Martin Schulz, then-president of the European Parliament, to French authorities.

The case and its fallout weigh heavily on Le Pen’s political future after more than a decade spent trying to bring the far right into France’s political mainstream. Since taking over the party from her late father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in 2011, she has sought to shed its reputation for racism and antisemitism, changing its name, expelling her father in 2015 and softening both the party’s platform and her own public image.

That strategy has paid dividends. The National Rally is now the largest single political group in France’s lower house of parliament and has built a broad network of elected officials across the country.

Le Pen stepped down as party president in 2021 to focus on the presidential race, handing the role to Jordan Bardella, now 30.

If she is ultimately prevented from running in 2027, Bardella is widely expected to be her successor. His popularity has surged, particularly among younger voters, though some within the party have questioned his leadership.

Le Pen's potential conviction would be “deeply worrying for (France's) democracy,” Bardella said Monday in a New Year address.

Far-right party National Rally president Jordan Bardella speaks during his New Year address to the press, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at National Rally president Jordan Bardella's New Year address to the press, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, center, is framed by Louis Aliot, left, and conservative lawmaker Eric Ciotti during National Rally president Jordan Bardella's New Year address to the press, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)