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Strong cold-season gusts brought walls down onto flimsy shelters housing people displaced by war in Gaza, killing at least four people. This tragedy underscores the dangerous situation that continue after over two years of devastating bombardment and critical lack of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Provides No Respite from Severe Weather

Although a ceasefire has been in effect since October, aid groups report that Palestinians do not have the adequate shelter necessary to withstand recurring cold-weather events.

Medical staff at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the victims, reported on Tuesday that the dead were two women, a girl, and a man.

In a separate incident, the Gaza health ministry announced on Tuesday that a 12-month-old infant died of hypothermia overnight.

"The world has enabled us to witness loss of life in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda following the burial. "While it is correct the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Buried in Tent Collapse

As per the medical center, three people of a single household — elderly a man, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his son's wife — were killed when an eight-metre tall wall collapsed on top of their dwelling in a coastal area of Gaza City. At least five additional people were injured in the event.

Family members on Tuesday started clearing the rubble that had buried their loved ones and reconstructing the temporary homes for those who remained.

Aid Distribution and Ongoing Emergency

The UN and its aid organization allies were distributing shelter kits, plastic sheeting, blankets and clothing as well as nutrition and sanitation supplies across Gaza, said the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of Palestinians reside in improvised shelters since their homes were turned into ruins over the course of the hostilities. Aid groups contend an insufficient amount of building supplies are reaching Gaza during the truce.

Casualty Figures Since the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, which is part of the administration, says more than 440 individuals have been fatally shot by Israeli fire and their remains taken to hospitals after the ceasefire went into effect. The ministry keeps detailed casualty records that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and outside analysts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on that day that no fewer than one hundred children below eighteen years old – 60 males and 40 females – had been killed since the ceasefire started due to military operations, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, tank shelling and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, represented cases where sufficient information had been gathered to warrant recording, but the overall count is believed to be greater. He noted that hundreds of children had been wounded.

"Although 'bombings and shootings have slowed' during the truce, they have not stopped," Elder told journalists at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the international community now terms quiet would be considered a crisis anywhere else," he said.

Another Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s population of over two million individuals has been struggling to keep the freezing temperatures and bad weather at bay while enduring lack of assistance and a absence of sturdier transitional shelter, which is badly required throughout the winter months. It’s the 3rd cold season after the war involving Israel and Hamas began on a date in late 2023, when fighters attacked southern Israel and murdered approximately 1,200 people and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

The local health authority says over 71,400 people have been killed in Israel’s military campaign.