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Strong cold-season gusts caused walls to collapse onto fragile shelters housing people displaced by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than 4 people. This tragedy highlights the perilous living conditions that persist after more than 24 months of devastating bombardment and severe lack of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Offers Little Relief from Harsh Elements

Although a truce has been active since last fall, humanitarian organizations state that Palestinians broadly lack the adequate shelter necessary to withstand frequent winter storms.

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

Separately, the Gaza health ministry announced on Tuesday that a one-year-old boy died of extreme cold during the night.

"The world has enabled us to witness loss of life in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda following the burial. "It’s true the shelling may have paused for now, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Crushed in Tent Collapse

According to the medical center, three people of a single household — 72-year-old a man, his 15-year-old relative, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an eight-metre high wall collapsed on top of their tent in a area near the sea of the city. At least five others were hurt in the incident.

Family members on that day started removing the debris that had entombed their loved ones and rebuilding the tent shelters for those who remained.

Humanitarian Efforts and Continuing Crisis

The UN and its humanitarian partners were distributing tents, plastic sheeting, blankets and clothing as well as nutrition and sanitation supplies throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of the population live in improvised shelters since their houses were turned into rubble during the hostilities. Aid groups say an insufficient amount of building supplies are entering Gaza during the truce.

Casualty Numbers After the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, which is part of the administration, says over 440 individuals have been fatally shot by Israeli fire and their bodies brought to hospitals after the ceasefire went into effect. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are considered generally reliable by international bodies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, representing the UN children’s agency Unicef, stated on that day that no fewer than one hundred minors under the age of 18 – sixty boys and forty girls – had been lost their lives since the ceasefire started due to military operations, such as drone strikes, air raids, tank shelling and employment of bullets. Those figures, he explained, reflected incidents where sufficient information had been compiled to warrant recording, but the total toll is expected to be greater. He noted that hundreds of children had been injured.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have decreased' during the truce, they have not stopped," the spokesperson informed journalists at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video from Gaza City. "So what the international community now calls calm would be viewed as a catastrophe in any other place," he said.

Another Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s population of more than two million people has been fighting to fend off the freezing temperatures and bad weather away while facing shortages of assistance and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is badly required throughout the colder season. It’s the third cold season after the conflict involving Israel and Hamas began on 7 October 2023, when fighters stormed into Israeli territory and killed around 1,200 people and abducted 251 others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says over 71,400 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.