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Strong winter winds caused walls to collapse upon flimsy tents housing people uprooted by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 people. These deaths highlights the perilous living conditions that continue after over 24 months of devastating bombardment and severe shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Offers No Respite from Severe Weather

Although a ceasefire has been in effect since October, aid groups state that Palestinians broadly lack the adequate housing necessary to survive recurring cold-weather events.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which received the victims, reported on Tuesday that the dead were a pair of adult females, a girl, and a man.

In a separate incident, the local health authority announced on Tuesday that a one-year-old boy succumbed of extreme cold during the night.

"The world has allowed us to experience death in every possible way," said a family member after the funeral. "While it is correct the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Crushed in Shelter Collapse

As per the medical center, three members of a one family — elderly a man, his teenage granddaughter, and his son's wife — were killed when an eight-metre high wall collapsed onto their tent in a area near the sea of the city. No fewer than 5 others were injured in the event.

Family members on that day began removing the rubble that had entombed their family and rebuilding the temporary homes for those who remained.

Humanitarian Distribution and Continuing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were distributing shelter kits, tarps, warm covers and clothes as well as food and hygiene items across Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of Palestinians reside in makeshift tents because their homes were turned into rubble during the war. Aid groups contend an insufficient amount of shelter materials are reaching Gaza under the truce.

Casualty Numbers Since the Ceasefire

The Gaza health ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, says more than 440 individuals have been fatally shot by gunfire and their remains brought to hospitals after the truce went into effect. The ministry keeps comprehensive casualty records that are seen as largely accurate by UN agencies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children's fund, said on that day that at least 100 minors under the age of 18 – 60 males and 40 females – had been killed after the truce began due to armed actions, such as drone strikes, air raids, artillery fire and employment of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, reflected incidents where enough details had been compiled to justify documentation, but the total toll is expected to be greater. He added that many hundreds of children had been injured.

"Although 'bombings and gunfire have decreased' during the ceasefire, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed reporters at a press conference in Geneva by video link from Gaza City. "So what the international community now calls quiet would be considered a crisis in any other place," he said.

Another Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people has been struggling to fend off the cold weather and storms at bay while enduring shortages of assistance and a absence of more substantial transitional shelter, which is badly required during the winter months. It’s the 3rd cold season after the conflict between the state and the group began on a date in late 2023, when fighters attacked Israeli territory and murdered around 1,200 people and took hostage 251 others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says more than 71,400 people have been killed in the subsequent military campaign.