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Strong winter gusts brought walls down upon fragile shelters housing people uprooted by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than 4 individuals. These deaths underscores the dangerous situation that continue after more than two years of devastating airstrikes and severe shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Provides Little Respite from Harsh Weather

While a truce has been active from last fall, aid groups state that residents broadly lack the adequate shelter necessary to survive frequent cold-weather events.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the victims, reported on Tuesday that the deceased were a pair of adult females, a girl, and a man.

Separately, the local health authority stated on Tuesday that a one-year-old boy died of extreme cold during the night.

"The world has enabled us to witness death in all its forms," said Bassel Hamouda following the funeral. "While it is correct the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen all imaginable reasons of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Tent Collapse

According to the medical center, three members of a single family — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage relative, and his son's wife — were killed when an 26-foot tall wall collapsed on top of their dwelling in a area near the sea of the city. No fewer than five others were hurt in the event.

Family members on Tuesday started clearing the debris that had entombed their loved ones and reconstructing the tent shelters for survivors.

Humanitarian Distribution and Continuing Emergency

The UN and its aid organization allies were handing out tents, tarps, warm covers and clothing as well as nutrition and hygiene supplies across Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of the population live in makeshift shelters because their homes were turned into rubble during the war. Aid groups say not enough building supplies are entering Gaza under the ceasefire.

Casualty Figures Since the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, says over four hundred and forty individuals have been killed by gunfire and their remains taken to hospitals after the truce began. The authority maintains detailed fatality records that are seen as generally reliable by international bodies and outside analysts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, representing the UN children’s agency Unicef, stated on that day that at least one hundred minors under the age of 18 – 60 boys and forty girls – had been killed since the truce started due to military operations, including drone strikes, airstrikes, artillery fire and employment of bullets. Those figures, he explained, represented incidents where sufficient information had been compiled to warrant recording, but the overall count is expected to be greater. He noted that hundreds of children had been wounded.

"Although 'bombings and gunfire have decreased' under the ceasefire, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed reporters at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video link from the Strip. "So what the international community now calls calm would be viewed as a crisis anywhere else," he said.

Third Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of more than 2 million individuals has been struggling to fend off the freezing temperatures and storms away while enduring shortages of humanitarian aid and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is badly required throughout the winter months. It’s the 3rd cold season after the war between the state and Hamas began on 7 October 2023, when fighters attacked Israeli territory and murdered around 1,200 people and abducted two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reports more than 71,400 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign.