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Powerful winter gusts caused walls to collapse onto fragile tents housing Palestinians displaced by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of at least 4 individuals. These deaths highlights the perilous living conditions that persist after more than two years of devastating airstrikes and severe shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Provides No Respite from Harsh Weather

While a ceasefire has been in effect from October, humanitarian organizations report that residents do not have the sufficient housing necessary to withstand frequent cold-weather events.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which received the victims, reported on Tuesday that the deceased were two women, a girl, and a male adult.

Separately, the local health authority announced on Tuesday that a 12-month-old infant died of extreme cold during the night.

"The world has enabled us to experience death in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda after the burial. "While it is correct the shelling may have paused for now, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Crushed in Shelter Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, 3 people of a one household — elderly a man, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an 26-foot tall wall fell onto their dwelling in a coastal area of the city. At least five others were hurt in the event.

Their relatives on Tuesday started removing the rubble that had entombed their family and reconstructing the tent shelters for survivors.

Humanitarian Efforts and Ongoing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were distributing shelter kits, tarps, warm covers and clothing as well as nutrition and sanitation items across Gaza, stated the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of Palestinians reside in improvised tents because their houses were turned into rubble during the war. Humanitarian organizations say an insufficient amount of shelter materials are reaching Gaza during the truce.

Casualty Numbers Since the Truce

Local health authorities, which is part of the Hamas-run government, reports over four hundred and forty individuals have been killed by gunfire and their bodies taken to hospitals after the truce began. The ministry maintains detailed casualty data that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on Tuesday that at least 100 children below eighteen years old – 60 males and 40 females – had been lost their lives since the ceasefire began because of military operations, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, tank shelling and use of live ammunition. These numbers, he said, reflected cases where enough information had been gathered to warrant recording, but the overall count is believed to be higher. He added that hundreds of minors had been injured.

"While 'bombings and shootings have decreased' during the truce, they have not stopped," Elder told reporters at a UN briefing in Geneva by video from the Strip. "Therefore what the international community now calls quiet would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he said.

Another Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of over two million people has been fighting to fend off the freezing temperatures and storms away while enduring shortages of assistance and a lack of sturdier temporary housing, which is badly needed throughout the colder season. It’s the 3rd cold season after the conflict between Israel and the group started on a date in late 2023, when fighters attacked Israeli territory and murdered approximately 1,200 individuals and abducted 251 others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reports over seventy-one thousand four hundred people have been fatally injured in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.