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Strong winter gusts brought walls down upon flimsy tents housing people displaced by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 individuals. This tragedy highlights the dangerous situation that continue after over two years of intense airstrikes and severe lack of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Provides No Respite from Severe Weather

Although a ceasefire has been active since October, aid groups state that Palestinians do not have the adequate housing required to survive frequent winter storms.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the bodies, reported on Tuesday that the deceased include two women, a girl, and a man.

In a separate incident, the local health authority stated on Tuesday that a 12-month-old infant died of extreme cold during the night.

"The world has enabled us to experience death in all its forms," stated a family member following the funeral. "While it is correct the bombing may have paused for now, but we have seen all imaginable reasons of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Shelter Collapse

As per the medical center, three people of a single family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his son's wife — were killed when an eight-metre high wall fell onto their tent in a area near the sea of the city. No fewer than 5 additional people were hurt in the incident.

Their relatives on Tuesday began clearing the rubble that had entombed 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 handing out shelter kits, plastic sheeting, blankets and clothing as well as food and sanitation supplies throughout Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

The majority of Palestinians reside in makeshift shelters since their homes were reduced to rubble over the course of the war. Aid groups contend an insufficient amount of shelter materials are reaching Gaza during the truce.

Casualty Numbers After the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, says over 440 people have been killed by Israeli fire and their remains brought to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect. The ministry keeps detailed fatality data that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and outside analysts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on Tuesday that at least one hundred minors below eighteen years old – sixty boys and 40 females – had been lost their lives after the ceasefire started due to armed actions, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, artillery fire and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, represented cases where enough details had been gathered to warrant documentation, but the total toll is believed to be greater. He noted that many hundreds of children had been injured.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have decreased' during the ceasefire, they have not stopped," Elder informed reporters at a press conference in Geneva by video link from the Strip. "Therefore what the world now calls calm would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he concluded.

Third Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s population of more than two million individuals has been fighting to fend off the freezing temperatures and storms at bay while facing shortages of humanitarian aid and a absence of sturdier temporary housing, which is badly needed during the colder season. This marks the third winter after the war involving Israel and Hamas started on a date in late 2023, when fighters stormed into Israeli territory and murdered around twelve hundred individuals and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

The local health authority reports more than seventy-one thousand four hundred people have been fatally injured in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.