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Powerful cold-season winds caused walls to collapse upon fragile tents housing Palestinians displaced by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than 4 individuals. This tragedy highlights the perilous living conditions that persist after more than 24 months of intense airstrikes and severe lack of aid.

Truce Provides Little Respite from Harsh Elements

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

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which received the victims, reported on Tuesday that the deceased were two women, a girl, and a male adult.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry announced on the same day that a one-year-old boy died of hypothermia during the night.

"International actors has allowed us to experience death in all its forms," said 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 members of a one family — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old relative, and his son's wife — were killed when an eight-metre high wall collapsed on top of their dwelling in a coastal area of the city. No fewer than five others were hurt in the incident.

Their relatives on Tuesday started clearing the debris that had entombed their loved ones and rebuilding the tent shelters for those who remained.

Aid Efforts and Ongoing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were distributing tents, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothing as well as food and hygiene supplies throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of Palestinians live in improvised tents because their houses were reduced to rubble during the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations say an insufficient amount of building supplies are entering Gaza during the ceasefire.

Casualty Numbers After the Ceasefire

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, says over four hundred and forty people have been killed by gunfire and their bodies brought to hospitals since the ceasefire began. The ministry maintains detailed fatality records that are considered generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, stated on that day that no fewer than 100 children under the age of 18 – 60 boys and 40 girls – had been killed after the truce started due to armed actions, including drone strikes, airstrikes, tank shelling and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, reflected cases where sufficient details had been compiled to justify documentation, but the total toll is expected to be greater. He added that hundreds of minors had been injured.

"While 'bombings and shootings have slowed' under the ceasefire, they have not ceased," the spokesperson told reporters at a press conference in the Swiss city by video link from Gaza City. "So what the world now terms quiet would be viewed as a catastrophe anywhere else," he said.

Third Winter of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of over 2 million people has been struggling to fend off the cold weather and storms away while facing shortages of assistance and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is badly needed throughout the colder season. This marks the 3rd cold season since the conflict involving Israel and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when militants attacked Israeli territory and murdered approximately 1,200 people and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

The local health authority says more than 71,400 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.