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Strong winter gusts brought walls down upon fragile tents sheltering Palestinians displaced by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than 4 people. This tragedy underscores the dangerous situation that continue after over 24 months of devastating airstrikes and critical shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Offers Little Respite from Harsh Elements

While a truce has been in effect from October, aid groups state that residents broadly lack the adequate shelter necessary to withstand recurring cold-weather events.

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

In a separate incident, the local health authority stated on the same day that a one-year-old boy died of extreme cold overnight.

"International actors has enabled us to witness loss of life in all its forms," stated a family member following the burial. "While it is correct the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Crushed in Tent Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, 3 people of a single family — elderly a man, his 15-year-old relative, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an eight-metre tall wall fell onto their tent in a coastal area of Gaza City. At least 5 additional people were hurt in the incident.

Family members on that day started removing the rubble that had entombed their loved ones and rebuilding the tent shelters for those who remained.

Aid Distribution and Ongoing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were distributing shelter kits, plastic sheeting, blankets and clothing as well as food and sanitation items across Gaza, stated the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of the population live in improvised shelters since their homes were turned into ruins over the course of the hostilities. Aid groups say an insufficient amount of building supplies are reaching Gaza under the truce.

Casualty Numbers After the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, says over four hundred and forty people have been killed by Israeli fire and their bodies taken to hospitals after the ceasefire went into effect. The ministry keeps detailed casualty data that are considered largely accurate by international bodies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, stated on Tuesday that no fewer than one hundred children under the age of 18 – 60 boys and 40 females – had been lost their lives after the truce started due to armed actions, including drone strikes, air raids, artillery fire and employment of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, reflected incidents where enough information had been compiled to warrant documentation, but the overall count is believed to be greater. He added that many hundreds of children had been injured.

"While 'explosions and shootings have decreased' under the ceasefire, they have not stopped," the spokesperson told reporters at a UN briefing in Geneva by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the world now calls calm would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he said.

Third Winter of Hardship

Gaza’s population of over two million people has been fighting to keep the cold weather and storms at bay while facing shortages of assistance and a lack of sturdier transitional shelter, which is badly required during the colder season. This marks the third cold season since the conflict between the state and Hamas started on a date in late 2023, when fighters attacked southern Israel and killed around twelve hundred individuals and abducted two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says over seventy-one thousand four hundred Palestinians have been fatally injured in Israel’s military campaign.