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Strong cold-season winds caused walls to collapse onto flimsy tents sheltering people displaced by conflict in Gaza, killing no fewer than four people. These deaths highlights the perilous living conditions that continue after over two years of devastating bombardment and severe shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Offers Little Relief from Harsh Weather

Although a ceasefire has been active since October, humanitarian organizations state that Palestinians broadly lack the sufficient shelter necessary to withstand recurring cold-weather events.

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

In a separate incident, the Gaza health ministry announced on the same day that a 12-month-old infant died of hypothermia overnight.

"International actors has enabled us to witness death in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda after the burial. "It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Shelter Collapse

As per the medical center, 3 members of a one family — 72-year-old a man, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an 26-foot tall wall fell onto their tent in a area near the sea of the city. No fewer than 5 additional people were hurt in the incident.

Their relatives on Tuesday started clearing the debris that had entombed their family and rebuilding the tent shelters for those who remained.

Humanitarian Distribution and Ongoing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were distributing tents, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothes as well as food and sanitation supplies throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of Palestinians reside in makeshift tents because their homes were reduced to ruins over the course of the hostilities. Aid groups say an insufficient amount of shelter materials are reaching Gaza under the truce.

Casualty Numbers Since the Ceasefire

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, reports over 440 individuals have been killed by gunfire and their remains brought to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect. The authority maintains comprehensive casualty data that are seen as generally reliable by international bodies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children's fund, said on that day that no fewer than 100 children below eighteen years old – 60 boys and 40 females – had been killed since the truce started because of military operations, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, tank shelling and employment of live ammunition. Those figures, he said, reflected incidents where sufficient information had been gathered to warrant recording, but the overall count is expected to be greater. He noted that many hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"Although 'explosions and shootings have decreased' under the ceasefire, they have not stopped," Elder told reporters at a press conference in Geneva by video from Gaza City. "So what the international community now terms quiet would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he said.

Another Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of more than 2 million people has been struggling to fend off the freezing temperatures and bad weather away while enduring shortages of humanitarian aid and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is badly required during the colder season. This marks the 3rd winter since the war between Israel and the group started on 7 October 2023, when militants attacked Israeli territory and killed around 1,200 people and abducted two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

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