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Strong winter winds brought walls down onto flimsy shelters housing people displaced by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 individuals. These deaths underscores the dangerous living conditions that continue after more than 24 months of intense bombardment and critical lack of aid.

Ceasefire Offers No Relief from Harsh Weather

Although a ceasefire has been in effect since October, aid groups report that residents broadly lack the adequate shelter required to survive recurring winter storms.

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

In a separate incident, the Gaza health ministry announced on the same day that a one-year-old boy died of hypothermia during the night.

"International actors has enabled us to witness loss of life in every possible way," said a family member following the funeral. "It’s true the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Crushed in Tent Collapse

As per the medical center, 3 members of a single family — 72-year-old a man, his 15-year-old relative, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an eight-metre high wall fell onto their dwelling in a area near the sea of Gaza City. No fewer than five additional people were injured in the event.

Their relatives on that day started removing the debris that had entombed their family and rebuilding the temporary homes for survivors.

Aid Efforts and Ongoing Crisis

The UN and its humanitarian partners were handing out shelter kits, tarps, warm covers and clothes as well as food and hygiene items across Gaza, said the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of Palestinians reside in makeshift shelters because their houses were turned into rubble during the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations contend an insufficient amount of building supplies are reaching Gaza under the truce.

Fatality Numbers After the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, which is part of the administration, says more than four hundred and forty individuals have been fatally shot by gunfire and their remains brought to hospitals since the truce went into effect. The authority maintains comprehensive fatality records that are considered largely accurate 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 under the age of 18 – 60 boys and forty females – had been lost their lives since the ceasefire started because of armed actions, such as drone strikes, air raids, tank shelling and use of live ammunition. These numbers, he explained, reflected incidents where enough information had been compiled to justify recording, but the overall count is believed to be higher. He added that hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have decreased' during the ceasefire, they have not ceased," Elder informed journalists at a press conference in Geneva by video from the Strip. "So what the world now calls calm would be viewed as a catastrophe anywhere else," he concluded.

Another Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people has been fighting to keep the cold weather and storms away while facing lack of humanitarian aid and a absence of sturdier temporary housing, which is urgently needed during the winter months. It’s the third cold season after the war between Israel and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when militants stormed into Israeli territory and murdered approximately 1,200 individuals and abducted 251 more into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says over 71,400 Palestinians have been fatally injured in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.