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Powerful winter winds caused walls to collapse upon fragile tents sheltering Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, killing at least four people. These deaths highlights the perilous situation that persist after more than 24 months of intense airstrikes and critical lack of aid.

Ceasefire Offers Little Relief from Harsh Weather

While a truce has been active from last fall, humanitarian organizations state that Palestinians do not have the sufficient shelter necessary to withstand frequent winter storms.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which received the bodies, said on Tuesday that the dead were two women, a girl, and a male adult.

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

"International actors has allowed us to witness loss of life in all its forms," said Bassel Hamouda after the funeral. "It’s true the bombing may have paused for now, but we have witnessed all imaginable reasons of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Crushed in Tent Collapse

According to Shifa hospital, three members of a one household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old relative, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an eight-metre high wall collapsed on top of their dwelling in a coastal area of Gaza City. No fewer than 5 additional people were hurt in the event.

Their relatives on Tuesday began removing the rubble that had entombed their loved ones and reconstructing the tent shelters for those who remained.

Aid Efforts and Continuing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were distributing tents, tarps, warm covers and clothes as well as food and hygiene supplies across Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of Palestinians live in improvised shelters because their houses were turned into ruins during the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations contend an insufficient amount of shelter materials are entering Gaza under the truce.

Fatality Figures After the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, says more than 440 individuals have been fatally shot by Israeli fire and their bodies brought to hospitals after the truce began. The ministry maintains comprehensive casualty records that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, said on Tuesday that at least 100 minors below eighteen years old – sixty males and 40 girls – had been lost their lives after the ceasefire started due to military operations, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, tank shelling and use of bullets. Those figures, he said, reflected cases where enough details had been gathered to justify documentation, but the total toll is believed to be higher. He added that hundreds of children had been injured.

"Although 'bombings and shootings have decreased' under the ceasefire, they have not ceased," Elder informed journalists at a press conference in the Swiss city by video link from Gaza City. "Therefore what the international community now calls calm would be viewed as a crisis anywhere else," he concluded.

Another Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of over two million people has been fighting to fend off the freezing temperatures and storms away while enduring shortages of humanitarian aid and a absence of sturdier transitional shelter, which is badly required during the winter months. It’s the third cold season after the war involving the state and the group started on 7 October 2023, when fighters stormed into southern Israel and murdered approximately 1,200 individuals and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reports over 71,400 people have been fatally injured in the subsequent military campaign.