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Powerful winter winds brought walls down onto fragile shelters housing people uprooted by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than four individuals. This tragedy highlights the dangerous situation that continue after over two years of intense bombardment and severe lack of aid.

Ceasefire Provides Little Relief from Severe Weather

While a ceasefire has been active from October, humanitarian organizations state that Palestinians do not have the adequate shelter necessary to withstand frequent winter storms.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the victims, said on Tuesday that the dead include a pair of adult females, a girl, and a man.

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

"The world has allowed us to witness loss of life in every possible way," said a family member after the burial. "While it is correct the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Tent Collapse

According to the medical center, 3 members of a single family — elderly a man, his teenage granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an eight-metre high wall fell on top of their dwelling in a coastal area of Gaza City. At least 5 additional people were injured in the incident.

Family members on Tuesday began clearing the rubble that had entombed their loved ones and reconstructing the temporary homes for survivors.

Aid Distribution and Ongoing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were distributing tents, tarps, blankets and clothing as well as nutrition and hygiene items across Gaza, said the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of the population reside in makeshift tents since their houses were turned into ruins over the course of the hostilities. Aid groups say an insufficient amount of building supplies are reaching Gaza under the truce.

Casualty Figures Since the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, which is part of the Hamas-run government, says over 440 individuals have been fatally shot by Israeli fire and their remains taken to hospitals after the ceasefire began. The authority keeps comprehensive fatality data that are seen as largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on Tuesday that no fewer than 100 minors under the age of 18 – sixty males and forty females – had been killed after the ceasefire began due to armed actions, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, tank shelling and employment of bullets. These numbers, he explained, reflected incidents where sufficient details had been gathered to warrant recording, but the total toll is believed to be greater. He added that many hundreds of children had been injured.

"While 'explosions and gunfire have slowed' during the truce, they have not ceased," Elder informed reporters at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video link from Gaza City. "So what the international community now calls calm would be considered a catastrophe anywhere else," he concluded.

Third Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of over two million people has been struggling to fend off the cold weather and bad weather away while facing lack of humanitarian aid and a absence of sturdier transitional shelter, which is urgently needed during the colder season. This marks the 3rd winter after the conflict between Israel and Hamas started on a date in late 2023, when militants stormed into southern Israel and killed approximately twelve hundred people and took hostage 251 others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reports more than 71,400 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.