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Strong cold-season winds caused walls to collapse upon fragile tents housing Palestinians uprooted by conflict in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 individuals. This tragedy highlights the perilous living conditions that continue after over two years of intense bombardment and critical shortages of aid.

Truce Offers No Respite from Harsh Weather

Although a truce has been in effect from October, aid groups state that residents broadly lack the sufficient housing required to survive recurring winter storms.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which received the bodies, reported on Tuesday that the dead were a pair of adult females, a young female, and a man.

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

"International actors has enabled us to experience death in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda following the burial. "It’s true the shelling may have paused for now, but we have witnessed all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Crushed in Tent Collapse

According to Shifa hospital, 3 people of a one family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage granddaughter, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an 26-foot tall wall fell on top of their dwelling in a coastal area of Gaza City. No fewer than 5 others were hurt in the incident.

Their relatives on that day began clearing the debris that had entombed their loved ones and reconstructing the temporary homes for those who remained.

Humanitarian Distribution and Ongoing Crisis

The UN and its humanitarian partners were handing out shelter kits, tarps, blankets and clothes as well as food and hygiene items throughout Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

The majority of the population live in improvised shelters because their homes were reduced to rubble during the war. Aid groups contend not enough shelter materials are entering Gaza under the truce.

Casualty Figures Since the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, reports over 440 individuals have been killed by Israeli fire and their bodies taken to hospitals after the ceasefire went into effect. The ministry maintains comprehensive fatality data that are seen as largely accurate by international bodies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on Tuesday that no fewer than 100 minors below eighteen years old – 60 males and 40 girls – had been killed after the truce started due to armed actions, such as drone strikes, air raids, artillery fire and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, reflected cases where sufficient details had been gathered to warrant recording, but the overall count is expected to be greater. He noted that many hundreds of children had been injured.

"While 'bombings and shootings have decreased' under the truce, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed reporters at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video link from the Strip. "Therefore what the world now terms calm would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he said.

Third Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s population of over 2 million individuals has been struggling to fend off the cold weather and storms at bay while facing lack of assistance and a lack of more substantial transitional shelter, which is badly needed throughout the winter months. It’s the third winter after the war involving Israel and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when fighters stormed into Israeli territory and murdered around twelve hundred individuals and took hostage 251 others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reports more than seventy-one thousand four hundred people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.