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Strong cold-season winds caused walls to collapse onto flimsy tents housing people displaced by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of at least 4 individuals. This tragedy highlights the dangerous situation that persist after over 24 months of devastating airstrikes and severe shortages of aid.

Ceasefire Provides Little Respite from Severe Elements

Although a truce has been in effect from last fall, humanitarian organizations report that residents broadly lack the adequate housing required to survive recurring cold-weather events.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which received the bodies, said on this week that the deceased were a pair of adult females, a girl, and a man.

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

"The world has enabled us to witness death in all its forms," stated a family member after the funeral. "While it is correct the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Crushed in Tent Collapse

As per the medical center, three members of a one household — 72-year-old a man, his teenage granddaughter, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an eight-metre tall wall fell onto their dwelling in a coastal area of the city. At least 5 others were hurt in the event.

Their relatives on Tuesday began clearing the debris that had buried their loved ones and reconstructing the temporary homes for those who remained.

Humanitarian Distribution and Ongoing Crisis

The UN and its aid organization allies were handing out shelter kits, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothes as well as nutrition and sanitation supplies throughout Gaza, said the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of the population reside in improvised shelters because their homes were turned into ruins over the course of the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations contend not enough building supplies are entering Gaza under the ceasefire.

Casualty Numbers After the Truce

Local health authorities, 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 ceasefire went into effect. The authority maintains detailed casualty data that are considered generally reliable by UN agencies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on that day that at least 100 children below eighteen years old – sixty males and forty girls – had been lost their lives after the truce started due to military operations, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, artillery fire and employment of bullets. Those figures, he explained, reflected cases where enough details had been gathered to warrant documentation, but the total toll is expected to be greater. He added that many hundreds of children had been wounded.

"While 'explosions and gunfire have decreased' during the truce, they have not stopped," Elder informed journalists at a press conference in Geneva by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the international community now calls calm would be viewed as a crisis anywhere else," he concluded.

Another Winter of Hardship

Gaza’s population of over two million people has been struggling to fend off the freezing temperatures and storms at bay while enduring shortages of humanitarian aid and a lack of sturdier transitional shelter, which is urgently needed throughout the colder season. It’s the third cold season since the conflict between the state and Hamas began on 7 October 2023, when militants attacked Israeli territory and murdered around 1,200 people and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

The local health authority says more than 71,400 people have been fatally injured in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.