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Powerful winter winds brought walls down upon flimsy shelters sheltering people uprooted by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 individuals. These deaths highlights the dangerous living conditions that continue after over 24 months of intense airstrikes and critical lack of aid.

Ceasefire Provides No Relief from Harsh Weather

Although a truce has been active since last fall, aid groups state that Palestinians broadly lack the adequate housing required to withstand recurring cold-weather events.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which received the bodies, said on Tuesday that the deceased were a pair of adult females, a girl, and a male adult.

In a separate incident, the Gaza health ministry announced on the same day that a one-year-old boy died of extreme cold overnight.

"International actors has allowed us to experience loss of life in all its forms," said Bassel Hamouda following the funeral. "It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Crushed in Tent Collapse

According to Shifa hospital, 3 people of a single household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage granddaughter, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an eight-metre tall wall fell onto their tent in a coastal area of Gaza City. At least 5 others were hurt in the event.

Their relatives on that day started removing the debris that had buried their family and rebuilding the tent shelters for survivors.

Humanitarian Efforts and Continuing Crisis

The UN and its aid organization allies were distributing shelter kits, tarps, blankets and clothing as well as food and sanitation supplies across Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of Palestinians reside in makeshift tents since their homes were turned into ruins during the war. Humanitarian organizations contend an insufficient amount of shelter materials are entering Gaza during the truce.

Fatality Numbers Since the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, says more than four hundred and forty individuals have been fatally shot by Israeli fire and their bodies taken to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect. The ministry maintains detailed fatality data that are seen as largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, said on Tuesday that at least 100 children under the age of 18 – 60 males and forty girls – had been lost their lives after the truce started because of military operations, such as drone strikes, airstrikes, artillery fire and use of live ammunition. These numbers, he explained, represented incidents where sufficient information had been gathered to warrant documentation, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He added that hundreds of children had been injured.

"While 'bombings and gunfire have slowed' under the truce, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed reporters at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from the Strip. "Therefore what the international community now calls calm would be considered a crisis anywhere else," he said.

Another Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of over two million individuals has been fighting to fend off the freezing temperatures and bad weather at bay while facing lack of humanitarian aid and a absence of more substantial temporary housing, which is urgently required during the colder season. It’s the 3rd winter since the conflict involving Israel and the group started on 7 October 2023, when fighters attacked southern Israel and murdered approximately 1,200 people and abducted two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says more than seventy-one thousand four hundred people have been killed in Israel’s military campaign.