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Powerful winter gusts caused walls to collapse upon flimsy shelters housing people uprooted by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of at least 4 people. These deaths underscores the dangerous living conditions that persist after over 24 months of devastating airstrikes and critical lack of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Provides No Respite from Harsh Weather

Although a ceasefire has been active from October, humanitarian organizations state that residents do not have the sufficient shelter required to withstand frequent cold-weather events.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which received the bodies, said on this week that the dead include two women, a girl, and a male adult.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry stated on the same day that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of extreme cold during the night.

"International actors has enabled us to witness loss of life in all its forms," said Bassel Hamouda following the burial. "It’s true the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Tent Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, 3 people of a single household — elderly a man, his teenage granddaughter, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an 26-foot high wall collapsed onto their tent in a coastal area of Gaza City. No fewer than 5 additional people were hurt in the event.

Family members on that day started removing the rubble that had buried their loved ones and reconstructing the temporary homes for survivors.

Aid Efforts and Ongoing Crisis

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

Most of Palestinians reside in improvised shelters since their houses were reduced to rubble during the war. Humanitarian organizations say not enough building supplies are reaching Gaza during the truce.

Casualty Figures After the Truce

Local health authorities, which is part of the administration, says over four hundred and forty people have been killed by gunfire and their remains taken to hospitals since the truce began. The ministry keeps detailed casualty data that are seen as largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on that day that at least one hundred minors below eighteen years old – 60 males and 40 females – had been lost their lives since the ceasefire began due to military operations, including drone strikes, airstrikes, artillery fire and employment of bullets. Those figures, he explained, represented incidents where enough information had been compiled to justify recording, but the overall count is expected to be greater. He noted that hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"Although 'bombings and gunfire have decreased' during the ceasefire, they have not ceased," the spokesperson told journalists at a UN briefing in Geneva by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the international community now terms quiet would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he said.

Third Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of more than two million people has been fighting to keep the cold weather and storms away while enduring lack of assistance and a absence of sturdier transitional shelter, which is badly required throughout the winter months. This marks the 3rd cold season since the conflict between the state and Hamas began on 7 October 2023, when fighters stormed into southern Israel and killed around twelve hundred individuals and abducted two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

The local health authority says more than 71,400 Palestinians have been fatally injured in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.