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Powerful cold-season winds caused walls to collapse upon fragile shelters housing Palestinians uprooted by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than 4 individuals. This tragedy underscores the dangerous living conditions that continue after over 24 months of devastating airstrikes and critical shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Offers No Relief from Harsh Elements

Although a truce has been in effect since last fall, humanitarian organizations report that Palestinians broadly lack the sufficient shelter necessary to survive frequent 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 local health authority stated on the same day that a one-year-old boy died of hypothermia during the night.

"The world has enabled us to witness loss of life in every possible way," 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 fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Shelter Collapse

According to Shifa hospital, 3 members of a one family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage relative, and his son's wife — were killed when an eight-metre high wall collapsed on top of their dwelling in a area near the sea of the city. No fewer than five additional people were hurt in the incident.

Family members on Tuesday began clearing the debris that had entombed their loved ones and reconstructing the tent shelters for those who remained.

Humanitarian Distribution and Ongoing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were handing out tents, tarps, warm covers and clothes as well as nutrition and hygiene supplies across Gaza, stated the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of Palestinians reside in makeshift tents since their houses were turned into rubble during the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations contend not enough shelter materials are reaching Gaza under the ceasefire.

Casualty Figures After the Truce

Local health authorities, which is part of the administration, says over 440 people have been killed by gunfire and their remains brought to hospitals after the truce went into effect. The authority keeps comprehensive fatality records that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and outside analysts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on Tuesday that at least 100 minors under the age of 18 – 60 boys and 40 females – had been killed after the ceasefire began due to military operations, such as drone strikes, airstrikes, tank shelling and employment of live ammunition. These numbers, he said, represented cases where sufficient details had been compiled to justify recording, but the overall count is expected to be greater. He added that many hundreds of minors had been injured.

"While 'explosions and shootings have decreased' during the ceasefire, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed reporters at a press conference in Geneva by video link from the Strip. "So what the world now calls calm would be considered a crisis anywhere else," he said.

Another Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people has been fighting to fend off the cold weather and storms at bay while facing lack of humanitarian aid and a lack of sturdier transitional shelter, which is badly required throughout the winter months. This marks the third cold season since the conflict between the state and Hamas began on a date in late 2023, when militants attacked Israeli territory and killed approximately twelve hundred people and abducted two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says more than 71,400 Palestinians have been fatally injured in Israel’s military campaign.