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Strong winter winds caused walls to collapse onto fragile shelters housing Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of at least four people. These deaths highlights the perilous living conditions that persist after more than 24 months of intense bombardment and severe shortages of aid.

Truce Provides Little Respite from Severe Weather

Although a ceasefire has been in effect since October, humanitarian organizations state that Palestinians broadly lack the sufficient shelter required to survive frequent winter storms.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which received the victims, reported on Tuesday that the dead were a pair of adult females, a young female, and a man.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry announced on the same day that a 12-month-old infant died of extreme cold during the night.

"The world has allowed us to experience death in every possible way," stated a family member following the burial. "It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed all imaginable reasons of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Tent Collapse

As per the medical center, three people of a single household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old relative, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an 26-foot tall wall collapsed onto their dwelling in a area near the sea of Gaza City. At least five others were hurt in the event.

Family members on that day started removing the rubble that had buried their family and rebuilding the tent shelters for survivors.

Humanitarian Efforts and Ongoing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were distributing shelter kits, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothing as well as food and sanitation supplies throughout Gaza, stated the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of Palestinians reside in makeshift tents since their homes were turned into ruins over the course of the war. Humanitarian organizations say an insufficient amount of building supplies are entering Gaza during the ceasefire.

Fatality Figures Since the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, which is part of the Hamas-run government, says more than four hundred and forty individuals have been killed by gunfire and their remains brought to hospitals after the truce began. The authority maintains comprehensive casualty data that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, stated on Tuesday that no fewer than one hundred children below eighteen years old – 60 boys and forty females – had been killed since the truce began due to armed actions, including drone strikes, air raids, tank shelling and employment of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, represented cases where sufficient information had been gathered to justify documentation, but the total toll is believed to be higher. He added that many hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"Although 'explosions and shootings have slowed' during the ceasefire, they have not ceased," Elder informed reporters at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video from the Strip. "Therefore what the international community now calls quiet would be viewed as a crisis in any other place," he said.

Third Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of more than two million individuals has been struggling to keep the cold weather and bad weather away while enduring shortages of assistance and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is badly needed throughout the colder season. This marks the 3rd cold season after the conflict involving Israel and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when militants stormed into Israeli territory and killed around twelve hundred individuals and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reports more than seventy-one thousand four hundred people have been fatally injured in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.