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Strong cold-season winds brought walls down upon flimsy shelters housing Palestinians displaced by conflict in Gaza, killing at least 4 individuals. These deaths highlights the perilous situation that persist after over two years of devastating bombardment and severe shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Offers Little Relief from Severe Weather

Although a ceasefire has been active since October, humanitarian organizations state that residents do not have the sufficient housing necessary to survive recurring winter storms.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the bodies, reported on Tuesday that the dead include two women, a young female, and a male adult.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry stated on Tuesday that a one-year-old boy succumbed of hypothermia overnight.

"International actors has enabled us to witness death in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda after the burial. "It’s true the bombing may have paused for now, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Shelter Collapse

According to Shifa hospital, 3 people of a one household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his son's wife — were killed when an eight-metre high wall collapsed onto their dwelling in a area near the sea of the city. No fewer than five additional people were injured in the incident.

Their relatives on that day started removing the debris that had entombed their loved ones and reconstructing the tent shelters for survivors.

Humanitarian Efforts and Ongoing Crisis

The UN and its humanitarian partners were distributing shelter kits, tarps, blankets and clothes as well as food and hygiene supplies throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of Palestinians live in makeshift tents since their homes were turned into ruins over the course of the hostilities. Aid groups say an insufficient amount of building supplies are entering Gaza under the truce.

Casualty Figures Since the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, reports over 440 people have been killed by Israeli fire and their bodies taken to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect. The authority keeps comprehensive fatality data that are seen as largely accurate by international bodies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on that day that no fewer than one hundred minors below eighteen years old – 60 males and forty females – had been lost their lives after the ceasefire started due to armed actions, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, artillery fire and use of live ammunition. These numbers, he explained, reflected incidents where sufficient information had been compiled to justify recording, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He noted that many hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"While 'bombings and shootings have decreased' during the ceasefire, they have not stopped," Elder told reporters at a press conference in Geneva by video link from Gaza City. "Therefore what the international community now terms calm would be considered a crisis in any other place," he concluded.

Another Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s population of over two million people has been struggling to fend off the cold weather and bad weather at bay while facing shortages of humanitarian aid and a absence of more substantial transitional shelter, which is badly required during the winter months. This marks the third cold season since the conflict involving the state and the group began on a date in late 2023, when fighters stormed into Israeli territory and killed approximately twelve hundred people and abducted two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says over 71,400 people have been fatally injured in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.