🔗 Share this article

Strong cold-season gusts brought walls down onto flimsy shelters sheltering Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, killing at least four individuals. These deaths underscores the dangerous living conditions that continue after more than two years of devastating airstrikes and severe lack of aid.

Ceasefire Offers No Respite from Severe Weather

Although a ceasefire has been in effect since October, aid groups state that Palestinians do not have the adequate shelter necessary to survive recurring cold-weather events.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which received the victims, said on Tuesday that the dead were a pair of adult females, a young female, and a male adult.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry stated on Tuesday that a one-year-old boy 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 shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Tent Collapse

As per the medical center, 3 people of a single household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage relative, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an 26-foot tall wall collapsed on top of their tent in a area near the sea of Gaza City. No fewer than 5 others were hurt in the event.

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

Humanitarian Distribution and Ongoing Crisis

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

Most of the population live in makeshift shelters since their homes were reduced to rubble during the war. Humanitarian organizations contend not enough building supplies are reaching Gaza under the truce.

Fatality Figures After the Truce

Local health authorities, which is part of the administration, says over 440 individuals have been killed by gunfire and their bodies taken to hospitals after the truce went into effect. The ministry keeps detailed casualty records that are seen as largely accurate by UN agencies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children’s agency Unicef, stated on that day that at least 100 minors under the age of 18 – sixty boys and 40 females – had been lost their lives since the truce started due to armed actions, including drone strikes, airstrikes, artillery fire and use of live ammunition. These numbers, he explained, represented incidents where sufficient information had been compiled to justify documentation, but the overall count is expected to be higher. He noted that hundreds of children had been injured.

"Although 'bombings and gunfire have decreased' during the truce, they have not stopped," Elder informed reporters at a press conference in Geneva by video link from Gaza City. "Therefore what the international community now terms calm would be considered a crisis in any other place," he concluded.

Third Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s population of over 2 million individuals has been struggling to fend off the freezing temperatures and bad weather at bay while facing lack of assistance and a absence of sturdier transitional shelter, which is badly required during the colder season. This marks the third winter since the war involving the state and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when fighters attacked southern Israel and murdered around twelve hundred individuals and took hostage 251 more into Gaza.

The local health authority reports over seventy-one thousand four hundred Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign.