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Strong winter winds caused walls to collapse upon fragile tents sheltering people displaced by conflict in Gaza, killing at least 4 people. These deaths highlights the dangerous living conditions that persist after more than 24 months of intense bombardment and severe shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Provides No Relief from Harsh Weather

Although a ceasefire has been in effect since last fall, humanitarian organizations report that Palestinians do not have the sufficient housing required to withstand frequent cold-weather events.

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

Separately, the Gaza health ministry stated on the same day that a one-year-old boy died of extreme cold overnight.

"International actors has enabled us to witness death in every possible way," stated a family member after the funeral. "It’s true the bombing may have paused for now, but we have seen every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Buried in Tent Collapse

According to Shifa hospital, three members of a single family — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage relative, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an 26-foot tall wall fell on top of their dwelling in a coastal area of Gaza City. At least five others were hurt in the incident.

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

Humanitarian Efforts and Ongoing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were distributing shelter kits, tarps, blankets and clothes as well as food and sanitation items throughout Gaza, said the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

The majority of Palestinians live in improvised shelters since their houses were turned into ruins over the course of the hostilities. Aid groups contend an insufficient amount of building supplies are entering Gaza during the truce.

Casualty Figures After the Truce

Local health authorities, which is part of the administration, says more than four hundred and forty people have been killed by Israeli fire and their remains taken to hospitals after the ceasefire began. The ministry keeps detailed casualty data that are considered generally reliable by UN agencies and outside analysts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, stated on Tuesday that no fewer than 100 minors under the age of 18 – sixty boys and 40 females – had been lost their lives since the ceasefire started because of military operations, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, artillery fire and employment of live ammunition. These numbers, he explained, reflected incidents where sufficient information had been compiled to warrant documentation, but the overall count is expected to be greater. He noted that hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"Although 'bombings and gunfire have slowed' under the truce, they have not stopped," the spokesperson told journalists at a press conference in Geneva by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the international community now terms quiet would be viewed as a catastrophe in any other place," he said.

Another Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s population of over 2 million individuals has been fighting to keep the cold weather and storms away while facing lack of assistance and a lack of more substantial transitional shelter, which is badly required throughout the colder season. It’s the third winter since the conflict between Israel and the group started on a date in late 2023, when fighters attacked Israeli territory and murdered around 1,200 people and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

The local health authority says over seventy-one thousand four hundred people have been fatally injured in the subsequent military campaign.