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Strong winter winds brought walls down onto fragile shelters housing people uprooted by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than 4 people. This tragedy highlights the dangerous living conditions that persist after more than two years of devastating bombardment and severe lack of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Provides No Respite from Severe Weather

While a ceasefire has been active from last fall, humanitarian organizations state that residents do not have the adequate shelter required to withstand frequent winter storms.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which received the bodies, said on Tuesday that the dead include a pair of adult females, a young female, and a male adult.

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

"The world has enabled us to witness death 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 Shelter Collapse

As per the medical center, 3 members of a one family — 72-year-old a man, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an eight-metre high wall collapsed on top of their tent in a area near the sea of the city. No fewer than five others were injured in the incident.

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

Humanitarian Efforts and Ongoing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were distributing tents, tarps, warm covers and clothing as well as food and sanitation supplies across Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of Palestinians reside in improvised shelters since their houses were turned into rubble over the course of the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations contend not enough building supplies are entering Gaza during the truce.

Casualty Numbers Since the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, reports over 440 people have been killed by Israeli fire and their bodies taken to hospitals after the truce went into effect. The ministry maintains detailed fatality data that are seen as generally reliable by international bodies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, representing the UN children's fund, said on Tuesday that at least one hundred minors under the age of 18 – 60 males and 40 females – had been lost their lives after the truce started due to military operations, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, artillery fire and use of bullets. These numbers, he said, reflected incidents where sufficient details had been compiled to justify recording, but the overall count is expected to be higher. He noted that many hundreds of minors had been injured.

"Although 'explosions and shootings have slowed' during the truce, they have not ceased," Elder informed journalists at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video from the Strip. "Therefore what the international community now calls calm would be considered a crisis in any other place," he concluded.

Third Winter of Hardship

Gaza’s population of over two million people has been fighting to keep the freezing temperatures and storms at bay while enduring shortages of assistance and a lack of more substantial transitional shelter, which is badly needed during the colder season. This marks the 3rd winter since the war between Israel and the group started on a date in late 2023, when fighters attacked Israeli territory and killed approximately twelve hundred individuals and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

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