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Powerful winter winds brought walls down upon fragile shelters housing people uprooted by conflict in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 individuals. These deaths highlights the perilous situation that continue after over two years of intense bombardment and critical lack of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Provides No Respite from Severe Weather

While a ceasefire has been active since October, aid groups state that residents do not have the sufficient housing necessary to withstand frequent cold-weather events.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the victims, reported on Tuesday that the dead were two women, a girl, and a man.

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

"International actors 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 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, 3 people of a single family — 72-year-old a man, his 15-year-old relative, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an eight-metre high wall collapsed on top of their tent in a coastal area of Gaza City. At least five others were injured in the event.

Their relatives on that day began clearing the debris that had buried their loved ones and rebuilding the temporary homes for survivors.

Humanitarian Efforts and Ongoing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were handing out shelter kits, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothing as well as nutrition and sanitation supplies throughout Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of Palestinians live in makeshift shelters since their houses were reduced to rubble over the course of the war. Humanitarian organizations say an insufficient amount of shelter materials are entering Gaza under the ceasefire.

Casualty Figures Since the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, reports over 440 individuals have been killed by Israeli fire and their remains brought to hospitals after the ceasefire began. The ministry maintains comprehensive casualty data that are considered generally reliable by international bodies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, representing the UN children's fund, said on that day that no fewer than 100 children under the age of 18 – 60 boys and 40 females – had been lost their lives since the truce started because of armed actions, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, artillery fire and employment of bullets. These numbers, he said, reflected incidents where enough information had been compiled to warrant documentation, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He added that many hundreds of children had been wounded.

"While 'explosions and gunfire have slowed' under the ceasefire, they have not stopped," Elder 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 in any other place," he concluded.

Third Winter of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of more than two million individuals has been fighting to keep the freezing temperatures and storms away while enduring lack of humanitarian aid and a lack of sturdier temporary housing, which is urgently required throughout the colder season. This marks the 3rd cold season since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began on a date in late 2023, when fighters attacked Israeli territory and murdered approximately twelve hundred individuals and abducted two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

The local health authority reports over 71,400 Palestinians have been fatally injured in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.