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Powerful cold-season gusts caused walls to collapse onto flimsy tents sheltering Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, killing at least 4 people. These deaths highlights the perilous situation that persist after over two years of intense airstrikes and severe lack of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Offers Little Relief from Harsh Weather

While a ceasefire has been in effect from October, aid groups state that Palestinians do not have the sufficient shelter necessary to withstand recurring winter storms.

Medical staff at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the victims, reported on Tuesday that the deceased were two women, a girl, and a man.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry announced on Tuesday that a one-year-old boy died of extreme cold during the night.

"International actors has enabled us to experience death in every possible way," said a family member following the burial. "It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Crushed in Shelter Collapse

According to Shifa hospital, 3 members of a one family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old relative, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an 26-foot tall wall fell onto their dwelling in a area near the sea of the city. At least five others were hurt in the incident.

Family members on that day began clearing the rubble that had entombed their loved ones and rebuilding the tent shelters for those who remained.

Aid Efforts and Continuing Crisis

The UN and its humanitarian partners were distributing tents, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothing as well as food and sanitation supplies across Gaza, stated the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of the population reside in improvised tents since their houses were turned into rubble during the hostilities. Aid groups contend an insufficient amount of shelter materials are entering Gaza during the truce.

Casualty Numbers Since the Truce

Local health authorities, part of the Hamas-run government, reports over four hundred and forty individuals have been killed by Israeli fire and their remains taken to hospitals since the truce began. The authority maintains detailed casualty data that are seen as largely accurate by international bodies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children's fund, stated on Tuesday that at least 100 children under the age of 18 – sixty boys and 40 females – had been lost their lives since the truce began due to armed actions, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, tank shelling and employment of live ammunition. These numbers, he said, represented incidents where sufficient information had been compiled to justify documentation, but the overall count is believed to be higher. He added that many hundreds of children had been wounded.

"While 'bombings and gunfire have slowed' during the truce, they have not stopped," Elder told journalists at a UN briefing in Geneva by video link from Gaza City. "So what the world now terms calm would be viewed as a crisis in any other place," he concluded.

Another Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s population of more than two million people has been struggling to keep the cold weather and storms at bay while facing lack of humanitarian aid and a lack of sturdier transitional shelter, which is badly needed throughout the winter months. This marks the 3rd cold season after the conflict between Israel and the group started on 7 October 2023, when fighters stormed into Israeli territory and murdered approximately twelve hundred individuals and abducted two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

The local health authority reports more than seventy-one thousand four hundred people have been fatally injured in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.