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Powerful cold-season winds brought walls down onto flimsy shelters sheltering people uprooted by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of at least 4 people. These deaths underscores the perilous situation that persist after more than 24 months of intense bombardment and severe shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Provides No Respite from Severe Weather

While a truce has been in effect from October, humanitarian organizations state that residents do not have the adequate housing necessary to survive frequent cold-weather events.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the bodies, reported on Tuesday that the deceased include a pair of adult females, a young female, and a man.

In a separate incident, the Gaza health ministry stated on Tuesday that a one-year-old boy succumbed of extreme cold overnight.

"The world has enabled us to witness loss of life in all its forms," stated a family member following the burial. "While it is correct the bombing may have paused for now, but we have witnessed all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Crushed in Shelter Collapse

According to Shifa hospital, 3 people of a one household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an 26-foot high wall fell on top of their tent in a area near the sea of the city. No fewer than 5 others were injured in the incident.

Family members on that day began clearing the rubble that had entombed their loved ones and rebuilding the temporary homes for those who remained.

Aid Efforts and Ongoing Emergency

The UN and its humanitarian partners were distributing shelter kits, tarps, blankets and clothing as well as food and hygiene items throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of the population reside in makeshift shelters since their houses were turned into ruins over the course of the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations say not enough shelter materials are reaching Gaza during the ceasefire.

Casualty Numbers After the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, reports over 440 individuals have been fatally shot by gunfire and their remains brought to hospitals since the ceasefire began. The ministry maintains comprehensive casualty data that are considered generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, representing the UN children's fund, stated on Tuesday that no fewer than 100 minors below eighteen years old – 60 boys and forty girls – had been lost their lives since the ceasefire began because of military operations, such as drone strikes, air raids, tank shelling and use of bullets. These numbers, he explained, represented incidents where sufficient details had been gathered to justify documentation, but the overall count is believed to be greater. He noted that hundreds of children had been wounded.

"While 'explosions and shootings have decreased' during the truce, they have not stopped," the spokesperson informed reporters at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from the Strip. "So what the international community now terms quiet would be viewed as a crisis anywhere else," he concluded.

Third Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of over two million individuals has been struggling to keep the freezing temperatures and storms away while enduring shortages of humanitarian aid and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is badly required during the winter months. This marks the 3rd cold season after the war between the state and Hamas started on a date in late 2023, when militants attacked southern Israel and killed approximately twelve hundred people and abducted 251 others into Gaza.

The local health authority says more than 71,400 people have been fatally injured in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.