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Powerful winter gusts brought walls down upon flimsy tents sheltering people displaced by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than 4 people. This tragedy highlights the perilous situation that continue after more than two years of intense airstrikes and severe lack of aid.

Truce Offers No Respite from Severe Elements

While a ceasefire has been in effect since last fall, humanitarian organizations report that Palestinians do not have the adequate shelter required to survive recurring winter storms.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the bodies, said on this week that the dead were two women, a girl, and a male adult.

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

"International actors has enabled us to experience loss of life in all its forms," said Bassel Hamouda after the burial. "While it is correct the shelling may have paused for now, but we have witnessed all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Buried in Shelter Collapse

As per the medical center, three members of a one family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an 26-foot high wall fell onto their tent in a area near the sea of the city. At least five others were injured in the incident.

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

Aid Distribution and Continuing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were handing out tents, tarps, blankets and clothing as well as food and hygiene items across Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of the population reside in makeshift tents since their houses were turned into ruins during the war. Aid groups say an insufficient amount of building supplies are reaching Gaza during the ceasefire.

Fatality Figures Since the Ceasefire

The Gaza health ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, reports more than 440 individuals have been killed by gunfire and their bodies taken to hospitals after the ceasefire began. The authority keeps detailed casualty data that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, representing the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on that day that at least 100 children below eighteen years old – sixty males and 40 girls – had been killed since the ceasefire began because of armed actions, including drone strikes, air raids, artillery fire and use of bullets. These numbers, he explained, represented cases where sufficient details had been compiled to warrant documentation, but the total toll is expected to be greater. He added that hundreds of children had been injured.

"While 'bombings and gunfire have decreased' during the truce, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed reporters at a press conference in Geneva by video from the Strip. "Therefore what the international community now calls calm would be considered a catastrophe anywhere else," he concluded.

Third Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s population of over 2 million individuals has been fighting to fend off the cold weather and bad weather away while enduring shortages of assistance and a absence of more substantial transitional shelter, which is urgently required throughout the winter months. This marks the third cold season since the war between Israel and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when fighters attacked Israeli territory and killed approximately 1,200 people and abducted 251 more into Gaza.

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