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Powerful winter gusts caused walls to collapse onto flimsy shelters housing Palestinians uprooted by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 individuals. This tragedy underscores the perilous living conditions that persist after over 24 months of intense airstrikes and severe shortages of aid.

Truce Provides Little Relief from Harsh Weather

While a ceasefire has been active from October, humanitarian organizations report that residents broadly lack the adequate shelter required to survive recurring winter storms.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which received the bodies, said on Tuesday that the dead include two women, a young female, and a male adult.

Separately, the local health authority stated on the same day that a 12-month-old infant died of extreme cold during the night.

"The world has enabled us to experience loss of life in all its forms," stated Bassel Hamouda after the burial. "It’s true the bombing may have paused for now, but we have seen every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Tent Collapse

According to Shifa hospital, three members of a single family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an eight-metre tall wall collapsed on top of their tent in a area near the sea of the city. No fewer than 5 others were injured in the incident.

Their relatives on that day started removing the rubble that had entombed their loved ones and rebuilding the tent shelters for those who remained.

Aid Efforts and Continuing Emergency

The UN and its humanitarian partners were distributing shelter kits, tarps, blankets and clothing as well as food and hygiene items throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of Palestinians live in makeshift tents because their homes were turned into ruins during the war. Aid groups contend an insufficient amount of shelter materials are entering Gaza during the truce.

Casualty Numbers After the Ceasefire

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, reports more than 440 people have been killed by Israeli fire and their bodies taken to hospitals after the truce went into effect. The ministry keeps comprehensive casualty data that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, representing the UN children's fund, said on Tuesday that at least 100 children under the age of 18 – sixty males and 40 girls – had been killed after the truce began because of military operations, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, artillery fire and use of bullets. Those figures, he explained, represented cases where sufficient details had been compiled to warrant documentation, but the overall count is expected to be greater. He noted that many hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"While 'bombings and gunfire have decreased' under the truce, they have not ceased," Elder informed reporters at a UN briefing in Geneva by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the world now terms quiet would be viewed as a catastrophe in any other place," he said.

Third Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of more than 2 million individuals has been fighting to keep the freezing temperatures and bad weather at bay while facing lack of assistance and a absence of sturdier temporary housing, which is badly needed throughout the winter months. This marks the 3rd winter after the war involving Israel and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when fighters attacked southern Israel and murdered around 1,200 individuals and took hostage 251 others into Gaza.

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