Displaced Gaza Strip residents largely entered the new year on Wednesday shivering in tent camps or taking refuge in schools-turned-shelters as Israel’s war with Hamas neared its 16th month.

At least five people were killed in an Israeli strike in northern Gaza before dawn in the northern city of Jabalia, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency service overseen by the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its reporting.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the strike hit a home and seven people were killed, including a woman and four children.

The Israeli military said fighter jets had bombarded a “terrorist structure” in an attempt to target Hamas militants within it.

As the war ground on, Yoav Gallant, the former Israeli defense minister who helped oversee his country’s military campaign in Gaza for more than a year until he was fired in November by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a televised statement that he was stepping down from his seat in parliament.

Gallant said his insistence that the military begin conscripting ultra-Orthodox citizens, who have long been exempted from mandatory service, had been behind his dismissal. Since then, he said, Netanyahu has rushed through a conscription bill that still exempts too many and won’t meet Israel’s security needs.

“That I cannot accept and be a partner to,” Gallant said.

His resignation came as mediators were trying to secure a ceasefire deal that would free the remaining Israeli hostages seized by Hamas-led militants during their Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Israeli officials have said they want a deal that secures freedom for at least some hostages but allows Israel to continue fighting in Gaza if it deems it necessary. Hamas has refused any agreement that does not include an end to a war that has decimated the enclave and unleashed a prolonged humanitarian crisis.

More than a year into the war between Israel and Hamas, many Palestinians in Gaza are living in makeshift tents, and finding enough food and clean water has become a daily ordeal. Over the past few days, they have endured chilly winter rainstorms; Gaza officials say six infants have died from the cold.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, Awad Abid, a displaced taxi driver, spent the past two days huddling with his children in a half-flooded tent. Abid said he was barely able to purchase enough flour to keep them fed, let alone buy new blankets and coats.

“Tonight we’ll cover ourselves in blankets that are still drenched in water, because the sun was too weak to dry out,” Abid said.

In northern Gaza, Israeli ground forces have been fighting for almost three months against what Israel says is a renewed Hamas insurgency. Repeated Israeli offensives have turned the area into a landscape of vacant, torn-up streets and ruined buildings.

The fighting in the north has displaced more than 100,000 people, and on Wednesday night the Israeli military again ordered residents remaining in parts of the area to leave for Gaza City. The Israelis said that they would soon begin operations in response to Hamas rocket fire.

Aid groups have lamented the deteriorating humanitarian situation in northern Gaza. Israel says it is allowing enough supplies to enter the area, although government attorneys conceded in a December court filing that the Israeli military might have initially underestimated how many people remained there.

At least 45,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the Hamas-led attack on Israel in 2023 prompted the war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault killed around 1,200 people in Israel and 250 people, mostly civilians, were taken hostage, according to Israel.

Officials and mediators had voiced tentative optimism in December that the negotiations for a ceasefire deal that would bring about 100 hostages still in Gaza, an unknown number of whom are believed dead, back to Israel could move forward. They pointed to a weakened Hamas that might be more willing to make concessions and to increased pressure by the incoming Trump administration. But a deal has yet to emerge.

For those in Gaza, the reports of progress brought optimism quickly followed by yet more disappointment as the talks appeared to stall.

“We looked through Facebook at videos of everyone abroad happy and celebrating the new year with their children,” Abid said. “Meanwhile, we’re still being bombed and hungry and cold.”

This report includes information from the Associated Press.