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Strong winter gusts caused walls to collapse upon fragile tents housing Palestinians uprooted by war in Gaza, killing at least four people. These deaths highlights the dangerous living conditions that continue after over 24 months of devastating bombardment and critical lack of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Provides No Relief from Harsh Weather

While a truce has been active from last fall, humanitarian organizations report that residents broadly lack the sufficient shelter required to survive recurring winter storms.

Medical staff at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which received the victims, said on Tuesday that the deceased include two women, a girl, and a male adult.

Separately, the local health authority announced on the same day that a 12-month-old infant died of extreme cold overnight.

"The world has allowed us to experience loss of life in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda after the burial. "It’s true the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Buried in Shelter Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, three people of a single family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage relative, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an eight-metre high wall collapsed onto their dwelling in a coastal area of the city. No fewer than 5 others were hurt in the event.

Their relatives on that day started clearing the debris that had entombed their loved ones and reconstructing the tent shelters for those who remained.

Aid Distribution and Ongoing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were handing out shelter kits, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothing as well as nutrition and sanitation items throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of Palestinians reside in makeshift tents because their homes were reduced to rubble over the course of the war. Aid groups contend not enough building supplies are entering Gaza during the ceasefire.

Casualty Figures Since the Ceasefire

The Gaza health ministry, which is part of the administration, says over 440 people have been killed by gunfire and their remains taken to hospitals since the ceasefire began. The ministry keeps comprehensive casualty data that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and outside analysts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on Tuesday that at least 100 children below eighteen years old – 60 males and 40 girls – had been killed since the ceasefire started due to armed actions, including drone strikes, air raids, artillery fire and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he said, reflected cases where sufficient details had been gathered to justify recording, but the overall count is believed to be higher. He noted that many hundreds of children had been injured.

"While 'bombings and gunfire have slowed' during the truce, they have not stopped," the spokesperson told journalists at a press conference in Geneva by video link from the Strip. "Therefore what the world now terms calm would be considered a catastrophe anywhere else," he said.

Another Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s population of over two million individuals has been struggling to fend off the freezing temperatures and storms away while facing shortages of humanitarian aid and a absence of sturdier temporary housing, which is badly required during the colder season. It’s the 3rd winter since the war involving the state and the group began on 7 October 2023, when fighters stormed into southern Israel and killed approximately twelve hundred people and took hostage 251 others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says over seventy-one thousand four hundred Palestinians have been fatally injured in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.