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Strong cold-season winds caused walls to collapse onto flimsy shelters sheltering Palestinians uprooted by war in Gaza, killing at least four people. These deaths highlights the dangerous living conditions that continue after over 24 months of intense airstrikes and severe shortages of aid.

Ceasefire Provides No Relief from Severe Elements

While a ceasefire has been active from October, humanitarian organizations report that residents do not have the sufficient shelter required to withstand frequent cold-weather events.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which received the bodies, said on Tuesday that the dead include a pair of adult females, a young female, and a man.

In a separate incident, the local health authority stated on the same day that a one-year-old boy succumbed of extreme cold during the night.

"The world has enabled us to witness death in every possible way," stated a family member after the burial. "While it is correct the bombing may have paused for now, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Buried in Tent Collapse

According to the medical center, three members of a one household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an eight-metre tall wall fell on top of their tent in a coastal area of Gaza City. No fewer than five others were hurt in the incident.

Family members on that day began clearing the debris that had buried their family and rebuilding the tent shelters for survivors.

Aid Distribution and Continuing Crisis

The UN and its humanitarian partners were handing out tents, plastic sheeting, blankets and clothing as well as food and hygiene supplies throughout Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

The majority of the population live in improvised shelters since their houses were turned into ruins during the war. Humanitarian organizations say an insufficient amount of shelter materials are entering Gaza during the ceasefire.

Fatality Numbers After the Truce

Local health authorities, part of the Hamas-run government, says more than four hundred and forty people have been killed by Israeli fire and their remains taken to hospitals after the truce began. The authority maintains comprehensive casualty data that are seen as largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, stated on that day that no fewer than one hundred children under the age of 18 – 60 boys and forty girls – had been killed since the ceasefire began due to armed actions, including drone strikes, air raids, artillery fire and use of bullets. Those figures, he explained, represented incidents where enough details had been compiled to warrant recording, but the overall count is believed to be higher. He added that hundreds of minors had been injured.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have decreased' under the truce, they have not stopped," Elder informed journalists at a UN briefing in Geneva by video from the Strip. "So what the international community now calls calm would be viewed as a crisis in any other place," he said.

Another Winter of Hardship

Gaza’s population of more than two million people has been struggling to fend off the freezing temperatures and bad weather at bay while enduring shortages of humanitarian aid and a absence of more substantial temporary housing, which is badly needed throughout the colder season. This marks the 3rd cold season after the war involving Israel and the group began on 7 October 2023, when militants attacked southern Israel and murdered approximately twelve hundred individuals and abducted two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

The local health authority says more than 71,400 people have been killed in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.