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Powerful cold-season gusts caused walls to collapse upon fragile shelters housing people uprooted by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than four individuals. These deaths underscores the dangerous living conditions that persist after more than two years of intense bombardment and critical lack of aid.

Ceasefire Offers No Respite from Harsh Weather

Although a ceasefire has been active since October, aid groups state that residents broadly lack the adequate housing necessary to survive recurring winter storms.

Medical staff at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which received the victims, said on Tuesday that the deceased include a pair of adult females, a young female, and a man.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry announced on the same day that a one-year-old boy succumbed of extreme cold overnight.

"The world has allowed us to experience death in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda following the funeral. "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."

Relatives Buried in Tent Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, three people of a one household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an eight-metre high wall collapsed on top of their tent in a coastal area of the city. No fewer than 5 others were injured in the event.

Their relatives on Tuesday started removing the rubble that had buried their family and rebuilding the tent shelters for those who remained.

Humanitarian Efforts and Ongoing Crisis

The UN and its aid organization allies were distributing shelter kits, tarps, blankets and clothing as well as food and sanitation supplies throughout Gaza, said the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

The majority of the population reside in makeshift shelters because their homes were reduced to rubble during the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations contend not enough building supplies are entering Gaza during the truce.

Casualty Figures Since the Truce

Local health authorities, part of the administration, says more than four hundred and forty individuals have been killed by Israeli fire and their bodies taken to hospitals after the truce went into effect. The ministry keeps detailed fatality data that are seen as generally reliable by international bodies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children’s agency Unicef, stated on Tuesday that no fewer than 100 minors below eighteen years old – sixty boys and forty girls – had been killed after the truce began because of military operations, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, artillery fire and use of live ammunition. These numbers, he said, represented incidents where sufficient details had been gathered to warrant recording, but the overall count is expected to be greater. He added that many hundreds of children had been wounded.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have decreased' under the truce, they have not ceased," Elder told reporters at a press conference in Geneva by video from the Strip. "Therefore what the international community now terms quiet would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he concluded.

Another Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of over two million individuals has been struggling to keep the freezing temperatures and storms away while facing shortages of humanitarian aid and a absence of more substantial temporary housing, which is urgently needed during the colder season. This marks the third winter since the war involving Israel and the group started on 7 October 2023, when militants attacked Israeli territory and murdered approximately 1,200 individuals and abducted 251 others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reports more than 71,400 people have been fatally injured in Israel’s military campaign.