Heavy rain and flooding have ravaged the makeshift shelters in Gaza, leaving thousands with up to 30 centimetres (one foot) of water inside their damaged tents, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said, as reported by AFP.

The dire weather conditions were "exacerbating the unbearable conditions" in Gaza, it said, pointing out that many families were left "clinging on to survival in makeshift camps, without even the most basic necessities, such as blankets".

Citing the United Nations, the IFRC highlighted the deaths of eight newborn babies who had been living in tents without warmth or protection from the rain and falling temperatures.

Those deaths "underscore the critical severity of the humanitarian crisis there", IFRC Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain said.

"I urgently reiterate my call to grant safe and unhindered access to humanitarians to let them provide life-saving assistance," he said.

"Without safe access -- children will freeze to death. Without safe access -- families will starve. Without safe access -- humanitarian workers can't save lives."

Chapagain issued an "urgent plea to all the parties... to put an end to this human suffering. Now".

The IFRC said the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) was striving to provide emergency health services and supplies to people in Gaza with an extra sense of urgency during the cold winter months.

However, it warned that "the lack of aid deliveries and access is making providing adequate support impossible."

It also lamented the "continuing attacks on health facilities across the Gaza Strip," which it said meant people were unable to access the treatment they needed.

"In the north of Gaza, there are now no functioning hospitals," it said, referring to the destruction of all remaining hospitals amid the Israeli army's campaign of ethnic cleansing in the area it started last October.

The IFRC stressed that the Israeli closure of the main Rafah border crossing last May had dramatically impacted the humanitarian situation, warning that "only a trickle of aid is currently entering Gaza," according to AFP.

On Wednesday, the health ministry in Gaza said on Wednesday that 51 people were killed in the Palestinian territory in the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 45,936, most of them women and children.

The ministry also said in a statement that at least 109,274 people had been wounded in more than 15 months of the Israeli genocidal war on the strip since 7 October 2023.

Also on Wednesday, Ireland formally asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to intervene in South Africa’s case, which accuses Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in its war on the Gaza Strip.