GAZA — As a winter storm continued to pound the Middle East, thousands of Gaza residents whose homes were destroyed or damaged in last summer’s war with Israel struggled with the harsh weather for a third day, and a 4-month-old baby from the southern part of the territory died on Friday from complications caused by the bitter cold, Palestinian health officials and relatives said.

The baby, Rahaf Abu Assi, the youngest of 10 children, had been sick all winter, living in a house in Al Zanna, near Khan Younis, that lacked doors, windows or toilets, according to her uncle. He said the house had been hit by Israeli bombs and shells.

Ashraf al-Qedra, a spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, said Rahaf was taken to a hospital on Thursday with clogged bronchial tubes, and died at dawn on Friday.

“Our life is tragic,” the uncle, Yousri Abu Assi, said in a telephone interview. He said the family covered the window openings with plastic sheets and sometimes burned “paper and coal inside the destroyed house to bring some warmth.”