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Powerful cold-season gusts caused walls to collapse onto fragile shelters housing people uprooted by conflict in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 individuals. This tragedy underscores the perilous situation that persist after more than two years of intense bombardment and critical lack of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Provides No Relief from Harsh Weather

While a ceasefire has been active since October, aid groups state that Palestinians broadly lack the sufficient housing required to survive frequent winter storms.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which received the victims, reported on this week that the dead include two women, a young female, and a man.

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

"The world has allowed us to witness loss of life 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 fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Crushed in Shelter Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, three people of a one household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old relative, and his son's wife — were killed when an 26-foot high wall collapsed on top of their tent in a area near the sea of Gaza City. No fewer than 5 additional people were hurt in the event.

Family members on Tuesday started clearing the debris that had buried their loved ones and reconstructing the tent shelters for survivors.

Humanitarian Efforts and Ongoing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were handing out tents, tarps, warm covers and clothing as well as food and hygiene supplies across Gaza, stated the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of Palestinians live in improvised shelters because their homes were turned into ruins during the hostilities. Aid groups say not enough shelter materials are entering Gaza under the truce.

Casualty Figures After the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, says over 440 people have been killed by gunfire and their bodies brought to hospitals after the ceasefire began. The authority keeps comprehensive fatality data that are considered generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, said on Tuesday that no fewer than one hundred minors under the age of 18 – 60 boys and 40 females – had been lost their lives after the ceasefire began due to military operations, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, artillery fire and employment of bullets. These numbers, he explained, represented incidents where enough details had been gathered to justify recording, but the overall count is expected to be higher. He added that many hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"While 'explosions and shootings have slowed' under the truce, they have not ceased," Elder informed journalists at a UN briefing in Geneva by video from Gaza City. "So what the world now terms calm would be viewed as a crisis anywhere else," he concluded.

Another Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people has been struggling to fend off the cold weather and storms at bay while facing shortages of humanitarian aid and a lack of sturdier temporary housing, which is urgently needed throughout the winter months. This marks the 3rd cold season since the war involving the state and Hamas started on a date in late 2023, when fighters attacked Israeli territory and murdered approximately 1,200 individuals and abducted 251 more into Gaza.

The local health authority reports over 71,400 people have been killed in the subsequent military campaign.