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Powerful winter gusts brought walls down upon flimsy shelters housing people uprooted by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than four individuals. This tragedy highlights the dangerous situation that continue after more than 24 months of devastating airstrikes and critical lack of aid.

Truce Offers Little Relief from Severe Weather

Although a ceasefire has been active from last fall, humanitarian organizations state that Palestinians broadly lack the adequate shelter necessary to survive recurring cold-weather events.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which took in the bodies, said on Tuesday that the deceased include a pair of adult females, a girl, and a man.

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

"International actors has allowed us to witness death in every possible way," stated Bassel Hamouda following the funeral. "It’s true the bombing may have paused for now, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Crushed in Shelter Collapse

According to the medical center, three people of a one family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old relative, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an 26-foot tall wall fell on top of their dwelling in a area near the sea of Gaza City. No fewer than five additional people were injured in the event.

Family members on Tuesday began removing the rubble that had buried their family and reconstructing the tent shelters for survivors.

Aid Efforts and Ongoing Crisis

The UN and its humanitarian partners were distributing shelter kits, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothing as well as nutrition and sanitation supplies across Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of the population live in improvised shelters since their homes were reduced to ruins over the course of the war. Aid groups contend not enough building supplies are reaching Gaza during the ceasefire.

Fatality Numbers Since the Ceasefire

The Gaza health ministry, which is part of the administration, reports over four hundred and forty people have been fatally shot by Israeli fire and their remains taken to hospitals since the ceasefire began. The ministry maintains comprehensive casualty data that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, representing the UN children's fund, said on Tuesday that at least one hundred children below eighteen years old – 60 males and 40 girls – had been killed after the ceasefire started because of military operations, such as drone strikes, air raids, tank shelling and employment of live ammunition. These numbers, he explained, reflected incidents where sufficient information had been compiled to justify recording, but the total toll is expected to be greater. He added that hundreds of children had been injured.

"While 'explosions and gunfire have decreased' under the truce, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed reporters at a UN briefing in Geneva by video from the Strip. "Therefore what the world now terms calm would be considered a crisis anywhere else," he said.

Third Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of more than two million people has been struggling to keep the cold weather and storms at bay while enduring lack of assistance and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is urgently required during the colder season. It’s the third cold season since the war involving Israel and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when fighters stormed into Israeli territory and murdered approximately twelve hundred individuals and abducted 251 more into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says over seventy-one thousand four hundred Palestinians have been fatally injured in Israel’s military campaign.