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Powerful cold-season gusts caused walls to collapse onto fragile shelters sheltering Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 people. These deaths underscores the perilous situation that continue after over two years of intense bombardment and severe lack of aid.

Truce Offers No Relief from Harsh Elements

While a ceasefire has been in effect from October, humanitarian organizations report that residents do not have the adequate housing required to survive frequent winter storms.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the victims, said on this week that the deceased were a pair of adult females, a girl, and a man.

Separately, the local health authority announced on the same day that a one-year-old boy died of hypothermia overnight.

"International actors has enabled us to witness loss of life in all its forms," said Bassel Hamouda after the burial. "While it is correct the shelling may have paused for now, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Tent Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, 3 members of a one household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage granddaughter, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an 26-foot high wall fell onto their tent in a area near the sea of the city. At least 5 others were hurt in the incident.

Family members on Tuesday started clearing the debris that had entombed their loved ones and rebuilding the tent shelters for those who remained.

Humanitarian Distribution and Continuing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were distributing tents, plastic sheeting, blankets and clothes as well as nutrition and sanitation supplies across Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of the population live in makeshift shelters since their homes were turned into rubble over the course of the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations say an insufficient amount of shelter materials are reaching Gaza during the truce.

Fatality Figures After the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, which is part of the Hamas-run government, says more than 440 people have been fatally shot by gunfire and their bodies brought to hospitals after the ceasefire began. The ministry keeps comprehensive fatality data that are seen as largely accurate by UN agencies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children's fund, stated on that day that at least one hundred minors under the age of 18 – 60 boys and forty girls – had been lost their lives after the ceasefire started due to military operations, including drone strikes, airstrikes, artillery fire and employment of bullets. These numbers, he said, reflected incidents where enough information had been gathered to justify recording, but the total toll is believed to be higher. He noted that many hundreds of children had been wounded.

"While 'explosions and shootings have slowed' during the ceasefire, they have not stopped," Elder informed journalists at a press conference in Geneva by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the world now terms quiet would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he concluded.

Third Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s population of over 2 million individuals has been fighting to keep the cold weather and storms away while facing shortages of assistance and a lack of sturdier transitional shelter, which is badly needed during the colder season. This marks the 3rd winter after the conflict involving Israel and Hamas began on a date in late 2023, when militants stormed into southern Israel and killed around 1,200 individuals and abducted two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

The local health authority says more than seventy-one thousand four hundred Palestinians have been fatally injured in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.