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Strong winter gusts brought walls down upon flimsy shelters sheltering people uprooted by war in Gaza, killing at least four people. These deaths underscores the dangerous situation that continue after over two years of devastating airstrikes and severe lack of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Provides No Respite from Harsh Weather

While a ceasefire has been active from October, humanitarian organizations report that residents do not have the adequate housing required to survive frequent cold-weather events.

Medical staff at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which received the victims, said on Tuesday that the dead include a pair of adult females, a girl, and a male adult.

In a separate incident, the local health authority announced on the same day that a one-year-old boy succumbed of hypothermia overnight.

"The world has allowed us to experience loss of life in all its forms," stated Bassel Hamouda following the funeral. "While it is correct the shelling may have paused for now, but we have witnessed all imaginable reasons of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Shelter Collapse

According to Shifa hospital, three members of a single household — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old relative, and his son's wife — were killed when an eight-metre high wall collapsed on top of their tent in a coastal area of Gaza City. No fewer than 5 additional people were injured in the incident.

Family members on Tuesday started removing the debris that had entombed their family and rebuilding the tent shelters for survivors.

Humanitarian Efforts and Ongoing Emergency

The UN and its aid organization allies were handing out tents, tarps, warm covers and clothing 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 tents since their houses were turned into ruins during the war. Humanitarian organizations say an insufficient amount of building supplies are entering Gaza under the ceasefire.

Casualty Figures Since the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, which is part of the Hamas-run government, reports more than four hundred and forty individuals have been fatally shot by gunfire and their remains brought to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect. The authority keeps detailed fatality records that are seen as largely accurate by international bodies and outside analysts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, stated on that day that no fewer than one hundred children below eighteen years old – 60 boys and 40 girls – had been lost their lives after the ceasefire started due to military operations, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, tank shelling and employment of bullets. Those figures, he said, reflected cases where sufficient information had been gathered to justify documentation, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He noted that many hundreds of minors had been injured.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have slowed' during the truce, they have not ceased," the spokesperson told reporters at a press conference in the Swiss city by video link from Gaza City. "So what the international community now terms quiet would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he said.

Third Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s population of over 2 million individuals has been fighting to fend off the cold weather and bad weather at bay while facing lack of humanitarian aid and a lack of sturdier temporary housing, which is badly required during the winter months. It’s the 3rd cold season since the conflict involving Israel and the group started on a date in late 2023, when militants attacked southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people and took hostage 251 more into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says more than 71,400 Palestinians have been fatally injured in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.