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Strong cold-season gusts brought walls down upon fragile shelters housing people displaced by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of at least four people. These deaths highlights the dangerous living conditions that persist after over 24 months of devastating airstrikes and severe lack of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Offers Little Relief from Severe Weather

Although a ceasefire has been in effect since last fall, humanitarian organizations report that Palestinians broadly lack the sufficient housing required to withstand frequent cold-weather events.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the victims, said on Tuesday that the deceased include two women, a young female, and a man.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry announced on Tuesday that a one-year-old boy succumbed of extreme cold during the night.

"International actors has enabled us to witness loss of life in all its forms," said a family member following the funeral. "It’s true the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Buried in Tent Collapse

According to the medical center, three members of a one household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old relative, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an eight-metre high wall fell on top of their dwelling in a area near the sea of Gaza City. At least five additional people were hurt in the event.

Their relatives on that day started clearing the rubble that had buried their loved ones and rebuilding the temporary homes for those who remained.

Humanitarian Distribution and Ongoing Crisis

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

Most of Palestinians reside in makeshift shelters because their houses were reduced to ruins during the war. Humanitarian organizations say not enough shelter materials are entering Gaza during the ceasefire.

Casualty Figures Since the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, says more than four hundred and forty people have been fatally shot by gunfire and their remains brought to hospitals since the truce began. The ministry keeps comprehensive casualty data that are seen as largely accurate by international bodies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on Tuesday that at least one hundred children under the age of 18 – 60 males and 40 females – had been killed after the truce started due to military operations, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, tank shelling and employment of live ammunition. These numbers, he said, reflected incidents where enough information had been gathered to justify recording, but the overall count is expected to be greater. He noted that hundreds of minors had been injured.

"While 'bombings and shootings have decreased' under the ceasefire, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed reporters at a press conference in Geneva by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the international community now terms calm would be viewed as a crisis in any other place," he said.

Another Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of over two million people has been fighting to fend off the freezing temperatures and bad weather away while facing shortages of assistance and a absence of more substantial temporary housing, which is badly needed during the winter months. It’s the third winter after the war between the state and Hamas began on a date in late 2023, when fighters attacked Israeli territory and killed approximately twelve hundred individuals and abducted two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

The local health authority says over 71,400 Palestinians have been fatally injured in the subsequent military campaign.