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Powerful cold-season winds caused walls to collapse upon fragile tents housing Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than four individuals. This tragedy underscores the perilous situation that continue after over two years of intense airstrikes and critical lack of aid.

Truce Provides No Relief from Harsh Weather

While a truce has been active since October, humanitarian organizations state that residents do not have the adequate housing required to withstand frequent winter storms.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the victims, said on Tuesday that the deceased include a pair of adult females, a young female, and a male adult.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry stated on Tuesday that a 12-month-old infant died of hypothermia overnight.

"The world has enabled us to witness death in every possible way," said a family member after the funeral. "While it is correct the shelling may have paused for now, but we have witnessed all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Crushed in Shelter Collapse

According to Shifa hospital, three people of a single household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old relative, and his son's wife — were killed when an eight-metre tall wall collapsed on top of their tent in a area near the sea of Gaza City. No fewer than five additional people were hurt in the incident.

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

Aid Distribution and Ongoing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were handing out tents, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothing as well as food and hygiene supplies throughout Gaza, said the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of Palestinians reside in makeshift tents because their homes were turned into ruins during the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations contend an insufficient amount of building supplies are reaching Gaza under the ceasefire.

Casualty Numbers After the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, part of the Hamas-run government, reports over four hundred and forty individuals have been fatally shot by gunfire and their bodies taken to hospitals since the ceasefire began. The authority keeps comprehensive fatality records that are considered generally reliable by international bodies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on Tuesday that no fewer than one hundred children under the age of 18 – 60 boys and 40 females – had been killed since the ceasefire started due to armed actions, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, artillery fire and employment of live ammunition. These numbers, he said, represented incidents where sufficient details had been compiled to warrant documentation, but the overall count is believed to be higher. He added that many hundreds of children had been injured.

"Although 'explosions and shootings have slowed' during the ceasefire, they have not stopped," Elder informed journalists at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from the Strip. "So what the international community now terms calm would be considered a catastrophe anywhere else," he said.

Another Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s population of more than 2 million individuals has been fighting to keep the cold weather and bad weather away while facing lack of humanitarian aid and a lack of more substantial transitional shelter, which is badly needed throughout the colder season. It’s the 3rd cold season after the war between Israel and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when militants stormed into southern Israel and murdered approximately twelve hundred people and took hostage 251 more into Gaza.

The local health authority reports more than 71,400 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.