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Powerful cold-season winds brought walls down onto fragile shelters sheltering people displaced by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of at least 4 individuals. These deaths underscores the perilous living conditions that persist after more than two years of intense bombardment and critical lack of aid.

Ceasefire Offers Little Respite from Harsh Elements

Although a truce has been in effect from October, humanitarian organizations state that residents do not have the adequate housing necessary to survive frequent winter storms.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which took in the bodies, reported on this week that the deceased include a pair of adult females, a young female, and a male adult.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry announced on the same day that a one-year-old boy succumbed of extreme cold overnight.

"International actors has enabled us to witness death in every possible way," stated a family member after the burial. "It’s true the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Crushed in Tent Collapse

As per the medical center, 3 members of a single family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage relative, and his son's wife — were killed when an eight-metre high wall fell onto their dwelling in a coastal area of the city. No fewer than 5 others were hurt in the incident.

Their relatives on Tuesday started clearing the debris that had buried their loved ones and rebuilding the tent shelters for survivors.

Humanitarian Distribution and Continuing Emergency

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

Most of the population live in improvised shelters since their homes were reduced to rubble over the course of the war. Humanitarian organizations contend an insufficient amount of shelter materials are reaching Gaza during the ceasefire.

Casualty Figures Since the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, which is part of the administration, says over 440 people have been killed by Israeli fire and their bodies brought to hospitals since the truce began. The ministry keeps comprehensive fatality records that are considered largely accurate by international bodies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, stated on Tuesday that no fewer than one hundred children below eighteen years old – sixty boys and 40 girls – had been killed since the ceasefire started due to military operations, including drone strikes, airstrikes, artillery fire and employment of bullets. Those figures, he explained, represented incidents where enough information had been gathered to justify documentation, but the total toll is believed to be higher. He noted that many hundreds of children had been injured.

"Although 'explosions and shootings have decreased' under the truce, they have not stopped," Elder told journalists at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video from the Strip. "So what the world now calls calm would be viewed as a catastrophe in any other place," he concluded.

Third Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s population of over 2 million individuals has been fighting to fend off the cold weather and bad weather away while enduring lack of humanitarian aid and a lack of more substantial transitional shelter, which is badly needed during the winter months. This marks the 3rd cold season after the conflict involving the state and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when fighters stormed into southern Israel and murdered approximately 1,200 individuals and abducted two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reports more than 71,400 people have been fatally injured in Israel’s military campaign.