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Strong cold-season winds caused walls to collapse upon fragile shelters sheltering Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 people. These deaths highlights the dangerous situation that continue after more than 24 months of intense bombardment and critical shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Offers No Relief from Harsh Elements

While a ceasefire has been in effect from October, humanitarian organizations state that Palestinians do not have the sufficient housing necessary to withstand frequent winter storms.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the victims, reported on Tuesday that the dead were a pair of adult females, a girl, and a man.

Separately, the local health authority announced on the same day that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of hypothermia overnight.

"The world has enabled us to experience death in all its forms," said Bassel Hamouda following the funeral. "It’s true the bombing may have paused for now, but we have witnessed all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Buried in Shelter Collapse

As per the medical center, three members of a single family — elderly a man, his teenage relative, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an eight-metre high wall collapsed on top of their dwelling in a area near the sea of the city. At least five additional people were injured in the event.

Their relatives on Tuesday began removing the rubble that had entombed their loved ones and reconstructing the temporary homes for survivors.

Humanitarian Distribution and Continuing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were handing out shelter kits, tarps, warm covers and clothing as well as nutrition and sanitation items across Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

The majority of Palestinians reside in improvised shelters since their homes were turned into rubble over the course of the war. Humanitarian organizations contend not enough building supplies are entering Gaza during the truce.

Fatality Numbers After the Truce

Local health authorities, which is part of the Hamas-run government, reports over 440 individuals have been killed by gunfire and their remains brought to hospitals after the ceasefire went into effect. The authority keeps comprehensive casualty data that are considered generally reliable by international bodies and outside analysts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, representing the UN children’s agency Unicef, stated on Tuesday that no fewer than one hundred children below eighteen years old – sixty males and forty girls – had been killed after the truce began because of armed actions, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, artillery fire and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, represented incidents where sufficient details had been compiled to justify documentation, but the overall count is expected to be greater. He noted that hundreds of minors had been injured.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have slowed' during the truce, they have not stopped," the spokesperson informed reporters at a press conference in the Swiss city 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 people has been struggling to keep the cold weather and bad weather at bay while enduring shortages of assistance and a lack of more substantial transitional shelter, which is urgently needed throughout the colder season. It’s the third winter since the conflict involving Israel and the group started on 7 October 2023, when fighters stormed into Israeli territory and murdered 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 military campaign.