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Strong cold-season winds caused walls to collapse upon fragile shelters housing people uprooted by conflict in Gaza, killing no fewer than four individuals. This tragedy underscores the dangerous living conditions that persist after more than two years of intense airstrikes and severe lack of aid.

Truce Provides Little Respite from Severe Weather

Although a truce has been active since last fall, humanitarian organizations report that residents do not have the sufficient housing required to survive frequent cold-weather events.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which received the victims, said on this week that the deceased were a pair of adult females, a young female, and a man.

In a separate incident, the local health authority stated on the same day that a 12-month-old infant died of extreme cold overnight.

"The world has allowed us to witness death in every possible way," said a family member after the burial. "While it is correct the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Buried in Shelter Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, 3 members of a single household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an 26-foot high wall fell on top of their tent in a coastal area of the city. At least five others were injured in the incident.

Family members on Tuesday started removing the debris that had entombed their family and reconstructing the temporary homes for those who remained.

Humanitarian Efforts and Continuing Crisis

The UN and its aid organization allies were handing out tents, tarps, blankets and clothing as well as food and sanitation items across Gaza, stated the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of Palestinians live in improvised tents because their houses were turned into ruins over the course of the war. Aid groups contend not enough shelter materials are reaching Gaza under the truce.

Fatality Numbers After the Ceasefire

The Gaza health ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, says over four hundred and forty individuals have been killed by gunfire and their bodies taken to hospitals after the truce began. The ministry maintains detailed fatality records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, said on that day that no fewer than one hundred minors below eighteen years old – 60 boys and 40 females – had been lost their lives after the ceasefire began because of armed actions, such as drone strikes, air raids, artillery fire and use of bullets. Those figures, he explained, reflected incidents where enough information had been gathered to warrant documentation, but the overall count is believed to be higher. He added that many hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"Although 'bombings and gunfire have decreased' during the ceasefire, they have not stopped," Elder informed journalists at a press conference in Geneva by video from the Strip. "So what the international community now terms calm would be considered a catastrophe anywhere else," he said.

Third Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of over two million people has been struggling to fend off the freezing temperatures and bad weather at bay while enduring lack of assistance and a lack of sturdier transitional shelter, which is urgently required throughout the colder season. It’s the third cold season after the war between the state and the group started on 7 October 2023, when fighters attacked southern Israel and killed around twelve hundred people and took hostage 251 more into Gaza.

The local health authority says over 71,400 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.