GAZA — Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice this winter. With more than 400,000 homes destroyed in the war, Gazans are being forced to choose between living in tents exposed to the elements or run the risk of living inside the ruins of buildings that could collapse any minute.

Hiyam Abu Nabah has no access to a tent; so that terrible choice has been made for her. She lives with her family in the shell of a building in the Hamad area of Khan Younis, southern Gaza, with no walls to protect them from the elements and the upper floors of the building pancaked above them.

Last week, torrential rains and floods killed at least 17 people in Gaza, including children, Palestinian Civil Defense Spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said. Others, he said, died due to building collapses. More than 90 residential buildings were affected and approximately 90% of shelters for people displaced due to Israel’s war in Gaza were completely flooded.

“On the first day of the storm, we could hear the stones cracking above our heads,” Abu Nabah says. “Sand was falling into our eyes… this is not a life.”

She watches her five-year-old weave in-between electrical wires hanging down from the crumbling ceiling. The wires are now used to hang clothes to keep them off the wet floor; electricity is but a distant memory here.

Her dream of moving back to what is left of her home in Shujaiya, Gaza City, seems remote. It is behind the so-called “yellow line” in an area occupied by the Israeli military as part of the ceasefire agreement to end the two-year war, inaccessible to residents.

In a building nearby, Awn Al Haj pokes at the roof of his shelter with a stick to show stone and sand crumble and fall at his feet. But this roof is the collapsed foundation of the apartment above, twisted steel girders distorted by the pressure of so many stories pancaked above.

Remembering a recent storm that passed through, Al Haj says “three days of it were like the early days of the war… you did not know what (would) happen to you while you are sitting here. Concrete blocks fall, water leaks in, wind and bitter cold.”

Every building still partially standing in this neighborhood carries the same dangers. Shoring up crumbling walls with mud, covering gaping holes with tarpaulin, Al Haj knows this is a band aid solution to a life-threatening problem.

The only alternative, he says, is to sit by the sea, in a tent, inundated by water.

Further north, in the al-Shati camp, a building collapsed Tuesday, killing a man sitting inside and injuring two others. One of the neighbors said it was badly damaged when the building next door was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike; the winter weather and wind was the final straw. “Houses keep collapsing. Someone do something about how we are living,” the neighbor said. “Day after day a house falls, day after day people die.”

Mohammad Fathi of the Gaza Civil Defense, which acts as the emergency service, was on the scene to recover survivors. Fathi says they do not have heavy machinery, such as excavators, to help them rescue survivors trapped under collapsed buildings. “With every winter storm, many families and many children will die,” he warned.

The Civil Defense calls for people to move out of damaged buildings during heavy rain, but the advice falls on deaf ears. For those living amongst the rubble, there is no other choice. The Civil Defense also states tents are simply not adequate as shelter for a Gaza winter. But there is no other option.

The United Nations says 1.3 million Palestinians need urgent shelter this winter. The latest figures from COGAT, the Israeli agency responsible for allowing goods into Gaza, says they have taken in close to 310,000 tents and tarpaulins recently along with over 1,800 trucks of warm blankets and clothing.

The UN and international NGOs are unanimously calling on Israel to allow more aid into Gaza to help hundreds of thousands without a home survive the winter. The UN says it is blocked by Israel from directly bringing aid into Gaza.

Officials say among those killed due to weather conditions last week was a two-week old baby and an eight month old, both of whom died of hypothermia.

With about 90% of shelters for displaced people flooded from recent storms, even more families will now be forced into the precarious, gravity-defying shells that were once homes and apartment blocks.

Bakr Mahmoud al-Sheikh Ali says there have been building collapses in his neighborhood in Khan Younis. “People are afraid, but they tell you, brother, I need shelter, I do not want a tent and water in the winter, in this cold weather… whatever happens, happens.”

The overwhelming sentiment given by every displaced Gazan who spoke to CNN: this is no way to live. — CNN

'Avatar: Fire and Ash’ lights up the box office with $88 million opening
LOS ANGELES — Moviegoers escaped into director James Cameron’s sci-fi universe this weekend, driving the third installment of the “Avatar” franchise to an estimated $88 million domestically.

The opening was shy of analysts’ expectations that it could earn more than $100 million in its first weekend. The first “Avatar” movie debuted in 2009 to $115 million, adjusted for inflation. The second film, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” opened in 2022 to $134 million domestically.

But “Avatar: Fire and Ash” also earned roughly $257 million internationally, bringing its global opening to $345 million. It will likely remain a top draw for moviegoers during the holidays and as it plays into January, said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore.

“As an international, especially 3D phenomenon, and in IMAX and the other premium formats, ‘Avatar’ is an event movie,” he said.

The movie’s nearly $400 million budget may weaken the chances for a fourth film if it has a disappointing return compared with more popular live-action formats, Cameron told CNN’s Jason Carroll last week. The franchise’s fate will be determined by “Fire and Ash’s” success over the coming weeks, Cameron said.

Movie theater attendance has declined in recent years as streaming services have proliferated and Americans have scaled back on discretionary spending. But blockbuster films like the “Avatar” franchise often lure back audiences who prefer the big screen, IMAX or 3D experiences.

“The theater is a sacred space for me as a filmmaker,” Cameron told CNN. “It’s never going to go away. But I think it could fall below a threshold where the kinds of movies that I like to make, and I like to see, won’t be sustainable. They won’t be economically viable. We’re very close to that right now.”

Despite a strong December, Hollywood failed to return to pre-pandemic levels this year. The domestic box office is down 22.5% compared with 2019, and up just 1.3% year-over-year, with earnings totaling $8.37 billion, according to Comscore.

Theaters, analysts and movie studios rejoiced in 2023, when the release of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” revived hope that the theater experience could still thrive. The box office surpassed $9 billion that year, the first and only time since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Though audiences are still showing up to theaters, it “remains to be seen” whether the box office will reach $9 billion again, Dergarabedian said.

“The box office, considering all the ups and downs this year, is going to turn out just fine, and actually lead into what I think could be the biggest post-pandemic year, in 2026,” he said.

This weekend got a boost from Angel Studios’ “David.” The biblical animation adventure movie raked in $22 million and came in second overall.

Lionsgate Films’ psychological thriller “The Housemaid” earned $19 million domestically to finish third this weekend. And family audiences were drawn to theaters for Paramount Pictures’ “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants,” which earned $16 million.

The three openers could have been major hits if they were released during a slow month like October, said Boxoffice Pro’s editorial director, Daniel Loria. They instead “complement” one another and have time to attract the right audiences through the holidays, he said.

A24’s “Marty Supreme,” Focus Features’ “Song Sung Blue” and Sony Pictures’ “Anaconda” all open in wide release next weekend.

“Marty Supreme,” an awards contender, opened in six theaters this weekend. It finished ninth overall with $875,000 in domestic earnings.

Meanwhile, “Avatar: Fire and Ash” may continue to attract big audiences.

Theaters have seen an uptick in the frequency of moviegoers. There were 33% habitual moviegoers — people who watch at least six movies a year — in August, up from 25% last year, according to Cinema United.

The gains in frequent moviegoers come as theater owners invested $1.5 billion in upgrades over the past year, according to Cinema United. And investments in premium large screens that show movies like “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” as well as deluxe seats and concessions, have driven Gen Zers to theaters.

Courting those young audiences, both through family-friendly movies and adaptations like Warner Bros. Pictures’ “A Minecraft Movie” and Universal’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” has always been difficult, said Shawn Robbins, an analyst at Box Office Theory. Warner Bros. Discovery is the parent company of CNN.

“What it takes to bring people out to theaters is a little different than it used to be, and I think studios are finally starting to hone in on how to make that really work for the current and future generations,” Robbins said. — CNN