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Powerful winter winds brought walls down upon fragile shelters housing people displaced by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than 4 people. These deaths highlights the dangerous living conditions that persist after over two years of devastating airstrikes and severe shortages of aid.

Ceasefire Provides Little Respite from Severe Weather

While a ceasefire has been active since October, aid groups report that Palestinians broadly lack the sufficient shelter necessary to survive recurring cold-weather events.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the victims, reported on this week that the dead include two women, a young female, and a male adult.

In a separate incident, the Gaza health ministry stated on the same day that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of extreme cold overnight.

"International actors has enabled us to experience death in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda after the funeral. "While it is correct 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 Shelter Collapse

According to the medical center, 3 members of a one family — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage relative, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an eight-metre tall wall collapsed on top of their dwelling in a coastal area of Gaza City. No fewer than 5 others were hurt in the event.

Their relatives on Tuesday began removing the rubble that had entombed their family and rebuilding the temporary homes for those who remained.

Humanitarian Distribution and Ongoing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were handing out tents, plastic sheeting, blankets and clothing as well as nutrition and hygiene items throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of Palestinians reside in makeshift tents since their houses were turned into rubble during the hostilities. Aid groups say not enough shelter materials are entering Gaza during the ceasefire.

Casualty Numbers Since the Truce

Local health authorities, which is part of the administration, says more than four hundred and forty individuals have been killed by gunfire and their remains taken to hospitals since the truce began. The authority maintains comprehensive fatality records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, representing the UN children's fund, said on Tuesday that at least 100 children below eighteen years old – 60 boys and forty girls – had been lost their lives since the ceasefire started due to military operations, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, artillery fire and use of live ammunition. These numbers, he said, reflected incidents where enough information had been compiled to warrant recording, but the overall count is expected to be greater. He noted that many hundreds of children had been injured.

"While 'explosions and gunfire have slowed' during the ceasefire, they have not ceased," Elder informed journalists at a UN briefing in Geneva by video link from Gaza City. "So what the international community now calls quiet would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he said.

Another Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s population of more than 2 million individuals has been fighting to keep the cold weather and bad weather at bay while enduring lack of assistance and a absence of more substantial transitional shelter, which is badly needed throughout the winter months. It’s the third winter after the war involving the state and the group started on 7 October 2023, when fighters stormed into southern Israel and murdered approximately 1,200 individuals and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

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