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Strong cold-season gusts caused walls to collapse upon flimsy tents housing people uprooted by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of at least four people. This tragedy underscores the dangerous situation that persist after over 24 months of intense bombardment and critical lack of aid.

Truce Offers Little Respite from Severe Weather

Although a truce has been active since October, aid groups report that Palestinians do not have the sufficient shelter required to survive recurring winter storms.

Medical staff 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 young female, and a man.

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

"International actors has enabled us to experience loss of life in every possible way," 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."

Relatives Buried in Shelter Collapse

According to the medical center, three people of a one household — elderly a man, his 15-year-old relative, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an eight-metre tall wall collapsed onto their dwelling in a coastal area of the city. No fewer than 5 others were hurt in the event.

Family members on Tuesday began clearing the rubble that had buried their loved ones and rebuilding the temporary homes for those who remained.

Humanitarian Distribution and Continuing Emergency

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

Most of Palestinians reside in improvised tents since their homes were reduced to ruins over the course of the war. Aid groups contend not enough building supplies are entering Gaza under the ceasefire.

Fatality Figures After the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, which is part of the Hamas-run government, reports more than 440 people have been killed by Israeli fire and their bodies brought to hospitals after the truce began. The authority maintains comprehensive fatality data that are considered generally reliable by UN agencies and outside analysts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on Tuesday that at least one hundred children below eighteen years old – 60 males and 40 girls – had been lost their lives after the truce began because of military operations, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, artillery fire and employment of bullets. These numbers, he explained, reflected incidents where sufficient details had been gathered to justify documentation, but the overall count is believed to be higher. He added that hundreds of minors had been injured.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have slowed' during the truce, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed reporters at a press conference in Geneva by video link from Gaza City. "So what the international community now terms calm would be considered a catastrophe anywhere else," he concluded.

Third Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s population of more than two million people has been struggling to keep the cold weather and storms away while enduring lack of assistance and a lack of more substantial transitional shelter, which is urgently needed during the colder season. This marks the 3rd cold season after the war involving Israel and Hamas started on a date in late 2023, when militants stormed into southern Israel and killed around twelve hundred individuals and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

The local health authority reports more than 71,400 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.