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Strong cold-season winds brought walls down onto flimsy tents housing people displaced by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 people. This tragedy underscores the perilous situation that continue after over 24 months of devastating airstrikes and critical lack of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Offers Little Relief from Harsh Elements

Although a truce has been in effect from October, aid groups state that residents do not have the sufficient housing required to survive frequent winter storms.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which received the bodies, said on Tuesday that the deceased include two women, a girl, and a male adult.

Separately, the local health authority stated on Tuesday that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of extreme cold overnight.

"International actors has allowed us to experience death in all its forms," stated a family member after the burial. "While it is correct the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen all imaginable reasons of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Buried in Shelter Collapse

As per the medical center, 3 members of a single family — 72-year-old a man, his teenage granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an 26-foot tall wall collapsed on top of their tent in a area near the sea of Gaza City. No fewer than five others were hurt in the event.

Family members on that day started removing the debris that had buried their family and reconstructing the tent shelters for those who remained.

Aid Efforts and Ongoing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were distributing shelter kits, tarps, blankets and clothing as well as food and sanitation supplies throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of the population reside in improvised tents because their homes were reduced to rubble over the course of the hostilities. Aid groups say an insufficient amount of shelter materials are reaching Gaza during the truce.

Fatality Figures Since the Truce

Local health authorities, part of the Hamas-run government, says over four hundred and forty individuals have been fatally shot by gunfire and their bodies brought to hospitals after the ceasefire began. The ministry maintains comprehensive casualty records that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, representing the UN children's fund, stated on Tuesday that at least 100 minors below eighteen years old – sixty males and 40 females – had been killed after the ceasefire began due to armed actions, such as drone strikes, air raids, tank shelling and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, reflected cases where enough details had been gathered to justify documentation, but the overall count is believed to be greater. He noted that many hundreds of children had been wounded.

"While 'bombings and gunfire have decreased' during the ceasefire, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed journalists at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from the Strip. "So what the world now terms quiet 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 struggling to keep the cold weather and bad weather away while enduring shortages of humanitarian aid and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is urgently needed during the winter months. It’s the 3rd cold season after the conflict involving Israel and the group began on a date in late 2023, when fighters stormed into southern Israel and killed approximately 1,200 people and took hostage 251 others into Gaza.

The local health authority says more than 71,400 people have been fatally injured in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.