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Strong cold-season winds caused walls to collapse upon flimsy shelters housing Palestinians displaced by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than 4 individuals. This tragedy underscores the dangerous situation that persist after over two years of devastating bombardment and severe shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Offers No Relief from Severe Weather

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

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the victims, said on Tuesday that the deceased include two women, a young female, and a male adult.

In a separate incident, the Gaza health ministry stated on Tuesday that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of hypothermia during the night.

"The world has allowed us to witness loss of life in all its forms," said a family member after the funeral. "While it is correct the shelling may have paused for now, but we have seen all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Buried in Shelter Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, three people of a one family — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an 26-foot tall wall fell onto their tent in a area near the sea of the city. At least 5 additional people were hurt in the incident.

Family members on Tuesday began removing the debris that had buried their loved ones and reconstructing the tent shelters for survivors.

Aid Efforts and Continuing Crisis

The UN and its humanitarian partners were distributing tents, tarps, blankets and clothes as well as food and hygiene supplies throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of the population reside in makeshift tents since their homes were reduced to rubble over the course of the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations say an insufficient amount of building supplies are entering Gaza during the ceasefire.

Fatality Figures Since the Truce

Local health authorities, which is part of the Hamas-run government, says over 440 people have been fatally shot by gunfire and their remains brought to hospitals since the truce went into effect. The authority keeps detailed casualty data that are seen as largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, stated on that day that at least 100 children under the age of 18 – 60 males and 40 girls – had been lost their lives after the ceasefire started because of armed actions, such as drone strikes, airstrikes, artillery fire and employment of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, reflected cases where enough details had been compiled to justify recording, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He added that hundreds of minors had been injured.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have decreased' under the ceasefire, they have not stopped," the spokesperson told journalists at a press conference in Geneva by video link from the Strip. "So what the world now calls calm would be considered a crisis in any other place," he said.

Third Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of over two million individuals has been struggling to fend off the freezing temperatures and bad weather at bay while enduring shortages of assistance and a absence of more substantial temporary housing, which is badly required during the winter months. This marks the 3rd cold season since the conflict involving Israel and the group started on 7 October 2023, when militants attacked southern Israel and killed around twelve hundred people and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

The local health authority reports over seventy-one thousand four hundred Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent military campaign.