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Powerful cold-season gusts caused walls to collapse upon fragile shelters sheltering Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of at least four people. These deaths highlights the dangerous situation that persist after over 24 months of devastating airstrikes and critical shortages of aid.

Truce Offers Little Relief from Harsh Weather

While a ceasefire has been active from October, humanitarian organizations state that Palestinians do not have the adequate housing required to withstand recurring cold-weather events.

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

In a separate incident, the Gaza health ministry announced on the same day that a one-year-old boy succumbed of extreme cold overnight.

"The world has enabled us to experience death in all its forms," said a family member following the burial. "While it is correct the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed all imaginable reasons of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Shelter Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, three members of a single household — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage granddaughter, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an eight-metre high wall fell on top of their dwelling in a coastal area of the city. At least 5 additional people were hurt in the incident.

Their relatives on that day started clearing the rubble that had entombed their loved ones and reconstructing the temporary homes for survivors.

Humanitarian Distribution and Continuing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were distributing tents, tarps, blankets and clothing as well as nutrition and hygiene items throughout Gaza, stated the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of the population reside in makeshift tents since their houses were reduced to ruins during the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations contend an insufficient amount of shelter materials are reaching Gaza under the truce.

Fatality Numbers Since the Ceasefire

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, says over four hundred and forty people have been killed by gunfire and their remains brought to hospitals since the truce went into effect. The ministry maintains comprehensive fatality records that are considered 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 100 children below eighteen years old – 60 males and 40 females – had been killed since the truce started due to armed actions, such as drone strikes, airstrikes, artillery fire and use of bullets. Those figures, he said, represented cases where enough information had been compiled to warrant documentation, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He added that many hundreds of children had been injured.

"While 'bombings and shootings have slowed' under the ceasefire, they have not ceased," the spokesperson told reporters at a press conference in Geneva by video from Gaza City. "So what the world now terms quiet would be viewed as a crisis anywhere else," he concluded.

Another Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of over two million people has been fighting to fend off the cold weather and storms away while facing lack of humanitarian aid and a absence of sturdier temporary housing, which is badly required during the winter months. It’s the third cold season since the war involving the state and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when militants attacked Israeli territory and murdered approximately twelve hundred individuals and took hostage 251 others into Gaza.

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