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Powerful cold-season gusts brought walls down onto fragile tents sheltering Palestinians uprooted by conflict in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 individuals. This tragedy highlights the perilous situation that continue after more than 24 months of devastating bombardment and critical shortages of aid.

Truce Offers No Respite from Harsh Weather

While a ceasefire has been in effect from October, aid groups state that residents do not have the sufficient shelter necessary to survive recurring winter storms.

Medical staff at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the bodies, said on Tuesday that the deceased include a pair of adult females, a young female, and a male adult.

In a separate incident, the Gaza health ministry stated on the same day that a one-year-old boy succumbed of extreme cold overnight.

"International actors has allowed us to witness loss of life in all its forms," stated Bassel Hamouda after the burial. "While it is correct the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Buried in Tent Collapse

According to the medical center, three people of a single family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an eight-metre tall wall collapsed onto their dwelling in a area near the sea of Gaza City. At least 5 additional people were injured in the event.

Their relatives on that day began clearing the debris that had buried their family and reconstructing the tent shelters for survivors.

Humanitarian Efforts and Ongoing Crisis

The UN and its humanitarian partners were distributing tents, tarps, warm covers and clothes as well as nutrition and sanitation items throughout Gaza, said the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

The majority of the population reside in makeshift shelters since their houses were turned into ruins over the course of the war. Humanitarian organizations say not enough shelter materials are entering Gaza under the truce.

Casualty Numbers Since the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, which is part of the administration, reports more than four hundred and forty individuals have been fatally shot by Israeli fire and their bodies brought to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect. The ministry maintains comprehensive fatality data that are seen as largely accurate by international bodies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on Tuesday that no fewer than 100 minors below eighteen years old – 60 boys and 40 females – had been lost their lives since the truce began because of armed actions, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, artillery fire and use of live ammunition. These numbers, he said, reflected incidents where enough details had been compiled to warrant documentation, but the total toll is expected to be greater. He added that many hundreds of children had been wounded.

"While 'explosions and gunfire 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. "Therefore what the international community now calls quiet would be considered a crisis in any other place," he said.

Third Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people has been struggling to fend off the freezing temperatures and bad weather away while facing lack of humanitarian aid and a lack of more substantial transitional shelter, which is badly needed throughout the colder season. This marks the third winter since the war between the state and the group started on 7 October 2023, when militants attacked southern Israel and murdered around 1,200 individuals and abducted two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reports over seventy-one thousand four hundred people have been killed in the subsequent military campaign.