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Strong cold-season gusts caused walls to collapse upon flimsy tents sheltering people displaced by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 individuals. This tragedy underscores the perilous living conditions that continue after over two years of intense airstrikes and severe lack of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Provides No Relief from Severe Weather

Although a truce has been in effect since October, aid groups state that residents do not have the adequate housing necessary to survive recurring cold-weather events.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which received the victims, reported on this week that the deceased include a pair of adult females, a girl, and a male adult.

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

"International actors has allowed us to witness death in every possible way," stated Bassel Hamouda following the funeral. "It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Tent Collapse

According to the medical center, three people of a single household — 72-year-old a man, his teenage granddaughter, and his son's wife — were killed when an 26-foot high wall fell on top of their dwelling in a area near the sea of the city. At least five others were hurt in the incident.

Their relatives on Tuesday started removing the debris that had buried their family and reconstructing the tent shelters for those who remained.

Aid Distribution and Ongoing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were distributing tents, tarps, blankets and clothing as well as food and hygiene supplies throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of Palestinians reside in makeshift tents because their homes were turned into rubble during the war. Aid groups contend not enough shelter materials are entering Gaza during the ceasefire.

Fatality Figures After the Truce

Local health authorities, part of the Hamas-run government, reports more than 440 individuals have been fatally shot by gunfire and their bodies taken to hospitals since the ceasefire began. The ministry keeps comprehensive casualty records that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, stated on Tuesday that no fewer than one hundred children below eighteen years old – sixty males and 40 girls – had been killed since the ceasefire started because of armed actions, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, tank shelling and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he said, represented cases where sufficient information had been gathered to warrant documentation, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He added that hundreds of minors had been injured.

"While 'explosions and shootings have slowed' during the ceasefire, they have not ceased," Elder told journalists at a press conference in the Swiss city by video link from the Strip. "Therefore what the world now calls quiet would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he concluded.

Third Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of more than two million individuals has been struggling to fend off the freezing temperatures and storms at bay while facing lack of assistance and a absence of sturdier temporary housing, which is urgently required throughout the winter months. This marks the 3rd winter since the conflict between Israel and the group started on 7 October 2023, when fighters stormed into southern Israel and killed 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 retaliatory offensive.