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Powerful winter gusts caused walls to collapse upon fragile shelters sheltering people displaced by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than four individuals. This tragedy underscores the dangerous situation that persist after more than 24 months of devastating airstrikes and severe lack of aid.

Ceasefire Provides No Respite from Harsh Weather

Although a truce has been active from October, humanitarian organizations state that Palestinians do not have the adequate shelter required to survive recurring cold-weather events.

Medical staff at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the bodies, reported on this week that the deceased were two women, a young female, and a man.

In a separate incident, the local health authority announced on Tuesday that a one-year-old boy succumbed of hypothermia during the night.

"The world has allowed us to experience loss of life in all its forms," stated a family member following the burial. "It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Crushed in Shelter Collapse

According to the medical center, three members of a single family — 72-year-old a man, his 15-year-old relative, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an 26-foot tall wall fell onto their tent in a area near the sea of Gaza City. No fewer than five others were injured in the event.

Family members on Tuesday started removing the debris that had buried their family and reconstructing the temporary homes for survivors.

Aid Distribution and Ongoing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were distributing shelter kits, tarps, blankets and clothing as well as food and hygiene supplies throughout Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

The majority of the population reside in improvised tents because their homes were reduced to ruins over the course of the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations say an insufficient amount of shelter materials are entering Gaza under the ceasefire.

Fatality Numbers Since the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, says more than 440 individuals have been fatally shot by gunfire and their bodies brought to hospitals after the ceasefire began. The ministry maintains detailed casualty data that are considered generally reliable by UN agencies and outside analysts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on Tuesday that no fewer than 100 minors under the age of 18 – 60 males and forty girls – had been lost their lives after the ceasefire started due to military operations, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, tank shelling and use of bullets. These numbers, he said, represented cases where enough details had been gathered to justify documentation, but the overall count is believed to be higher. He noted that hundreds of minors had been injured.

"While 'explosions and shootings have decreased' during the truce, they have not stopped," Elder informed reporters at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from Gaza City. "So what the world now terms quiet would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he concluded.

Third Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s population of over two million people has been fighting to keep the freezing temperatures and storms at bay while enduring shortages of assistance and a absence of more substantial temporary housing, which is badly needed throughout the winter months. It’s the 3rd winter since the conflict between Israel and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when militants stormed into southern Israel and killed approximately 1,200 individuals and abducted 251 more into Gaza.

The local health authority says more than seventy-one thousand four hundred Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.