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Strong cold-season gusts brought walls down onto flimsy tents housing Palestinians uprooted by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of at least four individuals. This tragedy highlights the perilous living conditions that continue after over two years of intense bombardment and critical lack of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Provides Little Respite from Harsh Weather

Although a ceasefire has been active since October, aid groups state that Palestinians do not have the adequate shelter required to survive frequent cold-weather events.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which received the victims, reported on Tuesday that the dead were two women, a girl, and a man.

In a separate incident, the local health authority announced on Tuesday that a one-year-old boy died of extreme cold overnight.

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

Relatives Crushed in Shelter Collapse

As per the medical center, 3 people of a one family — elderly a man, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an eight-metre high wall fell on top of their dwelling in a coastal area of the city. At least five additional people were injured in the event.

Their relatives on Tuesday began clearing the rubble that had entombed their loved ones and rebuilding the temporary homes for survivors.

Aid Distribution and Ongoing Emergency

The UN and its aid organization allies were distributing tents, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothes as well as nutrition and sanitation supplies throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of Palestinians live in makeshift shelters because their houses were reduced to rubble during the hostilities. Aid groups contend an insufficient amount of building supplies are reaching Gaza during the truce.

Casualty Figures After the Truce

Local health authorities, which is part of the administration, says over four hundred and forty individuals have been killed by Israeli fire and their remains brought to hospitals after the ceasefire began. The authority maintains comprehensive casualty data that are considered largely accurate by international bodies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, stated on that day that at least 100 children under the age of 18 – sixty boys and 40 girls – had been killed since the truce began due to military operations, such as drone strikes, air raids, artillery fire and employment of bullets. These numbers, he explained, reflected incidents where sufficient details had been compiled to warrant documentation, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He noted that many hundreds of minors had been injured.

"Although 'bombings and gunfire have slowed' during the truce, they have not stopped," the spokesperson informed reporters at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video link from the Strip. "So what the world now terms calm would be viewed as a crisis anywhere else," he concluded.

Another Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s population of over 2 million individuals has been fighting to fend off the freezing temperatures and storms at bay while facing shortages of assistance and a lack of more substantial transitional shelter, which is badly required throughout the colder season. It’s the third winter since the war involving Israel and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when fighters attacked Israeli territory and killed around 1,200 people and abducted 251 others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reports more than 71,400 Palestinians have been fatally injured in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.