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Powerful winter gusts brought walls down onto fragile tents housing Palestinians displaced by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than four people. These deaths underscores the perilous living conditions that continue after more than 24 months of devastating bombardment and severe shortages of aid.

Truce Offers Little Respite from Severe Weather

While a ceasefire has been in effect from October, aid groups state that Palestinians broadly lack the sufficient housing necessary to withstand frequent cold-weather events.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the bodies, reported on this week that the deceased were a pair of adult females, a young female, and a male adult.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry announced on Tuesday that a one-year-old boy succumbed of extreme cold during the night.

"The world has allowed us to experience loss of life in all its forms," said a family member following the burial. "It’s true 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 Tent Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, three members of a single household — elderly a man, his 15-year-old relative, and his son's wife — were killed when an eight-metre high wall collapsed onto their dwelling in a coastal area of the city. No fewer than 5 additional people were injured in the incident.

Family members on Tuesday began clearing the rubble that had buried their family and reconstructing the tent shelters for those who remained.

Aid Efforts and Ongoing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were handing out shelter kits, tarps, blankets and clothing as well as nutrition and hygiene supplies across Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of Palestinians reside in makeshift shelters because their houses were turned into rubble during the war. Aid groups contend not enough shelter materials are reaching Gaza under the ceasefire.

Fatality Numbers Since the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, which is part of the administration, says over 440 people have been fatally shot by Israeli fire and their remains taken to hospitals after the ceasefire began. The ministry maintains detailed fatality records that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, representing the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on Tuesday that at least one hundred children under the age of 18 – sixty boys and 40 females – had been killed since the truce started due to military operations, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, tank shelling and use of live ammunition. These numbers, he said, represented incidents where enough details had been gathered to justify documentation, but the overall count is believed to be higher. He added that many hundreds of children had been wounded.

"Although 'bombings and shootings have decreased' under the truce, they have not stopped," Elder told journalists at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from Gaza City. "So what the international community now terms calm would be viewed as a catastrophe in any other place," he concluded.

Third Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of over 2 million people has been fighting to keep the cold weather and storms away while facing lack of humanitarian aid and a lack of sturdier temporary housing, which is urgently required throughout the winter months. It’s the third cold season after the war between the state and Hamas began on 7 October 2023, when militants stormed into southern Israel and murdered approximately 1,200 people and abducted two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

The local health authority reports over seventy-one thousand four hundred people have been killed in the subsequent military campaign.