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Powerful cold-season winds brought walls down upon fragile tents sheltering Palestinians uprooted by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than four individuals. These deaths highlights the perilous living conditions that persist after over two years of intense bombardment and severe lack of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Offers Little Relief from Harsh Weather

While a truce has been active from last fall, aid groups report that residents do not have the sufficient shelter required to survive frequent winter storms.

Medical staff at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which received the victims, reported on this week that the deceased include two women, a girl, and a male adult.

In a separate incident, the local health authority announced on the same day that a one-year-old boy died of hypothermia overnight.

"International actors has allowed us to witness loss of life in every possible way," stated Bassel Hamouda after the funeral. "While it is correct the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Crushed in Shelter Collapse

According to the medical center, three people of a single family — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old relative, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an eight-metre high wall collapsed on top of their dwelling in a coastal area of the city. At least 5 additional people were hurt in the event.

Family members on that day started removing the debris that had entombed their loved ones and reconstructing the temporary homes for survivors.

Aid Distribution and Continuing Emergency

The UN and its aid organization allies were handing out tents, plastic sheeting, blankets and clothes as well as nutrition and hygiene items across Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of Palestinians live in improvised tents since their houses were reduced to rubble during the war. Aid groups say an insufficient amount of building supplies are reaching Gaza under the ceasefire.

Fatality Numbers Since the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, says over four hundred and forty people have been fatally shot by gunfire and their remains brought to hospitals after the ceasefire went into effect. The ministry keeps comprehensive fatality data that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, stated on that day that at least one hundred minors below eighteen years old – sixty boys and forty females – had been killed since the ceasefire started due to military operations, including drone strikes, airstrikes, artillery fire and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, represented incidents where sufficient details had been gathered to warrant recording, but the overall count is expected to be greater. He added that many hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"Although 'bombings and shootings have decreased' under the ceasefire, they have not stopped," the spokesperson informed reporters at a UN briefing in Geneva by video link from the Strip. "So what the international community now calls calm would be considered a catastrophe anywhere else," he concluded.

Another Winter of Hardship

Gaza’s population of over two million individuals has been fighting to fend off the freezing temperatures and bad weather away while enduring shortages of assistance and a lack of sturdier transitional shelter, which is badly needed during the winter months. This marks the 3rd cold season after the conflict involving the state and Hamas started on a date in late 2023, when militants stormed into Israeli territory and murdered around twelve hundred individuals and abducted 251 others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says more than 71,400 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.