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Strong winter gusts caused walls to collapse onto fragile shelters sheltering Palestinians uprooted by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 people. These deaths highlights the perilous living conditions that continue after more than two years of intense airstrikes and severe lack of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Provides Little Respite from Harsh Weather

While a ceasefire has been in effect from last fall, humanitarian organizations state that Palestinians do not have the adequate shelter required to survive frequent cold-weather events.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which took in the victims, said on Tuesday that the dead were a pair of adult females, a girl, and a male adult.

In a separate incident, the Gaza health ministry stated on the same day that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of extreme cold overnight.

"International actors has enabled us to experience death in every possible way," said a family member following the burial. "It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen all imaginable reasons 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 a man, his teenage granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an eight-metre tall wall fell on top of their tent in a coastal area of the city. At least five additional people were hurt in the incident.

Their relatives on that day began removing the debris that had entombed their loved ones and rebuilding the tent shelters for those who remained.

Aid Distribution and Ongoing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were handing out tents, tarps, warm covers and clothing as well as food and hygiene items across Gaza, said the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

The majority of Palestinians live in improvised shelters because their houses were reduced to rubble during the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations say an insufficient amount of shelter materials are entering Gaza under the truce.

Fatality Figures Since the Truce

Local health authorities, which is part of the Hamas-run government, says over four hundred and forty people have been fatally shot by gunfire and their bodies brought to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect. The ministry keeps comprehensive casualty data that are considered generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for 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 killed after the ceasefire began because of military operations, including drone strikes, airstrikes, artillery fire and employment of live ammunition. These numbers, he explained, reflected incidents where sufficient information had been gathered to justify documentation, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He added that many hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"Although 'bombings and shootings have slowed' under the truce, they have not stopped," Elder told journalists at a UN briefing in Geneva by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the world now calls calm would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he concluded.

Another Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s population of over 2 million individuals has been fighting to keep the cold weather and bad weather away while enduring lack of humanitarian aid and a lack of sturdier temporary housing, which is badly needed throughout the colder season. This marks the 3rd winter after the war involving Israel and Hamas began on a date in late 2023, when fighters stormed into Israeli territory and murdered approximately 1,200 individuals and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

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