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Powerful cold-season gusts brought walls down upon flimsy tents housing Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than 4 individuals. These deaths highlights the dangerous living conditions that persist after over two years of devastating airstrikes and critical lack of aid.

Ceasefire Provides Little Relief from Harsh Elements

While a ceasefire has been active since last fall, humanitarian organizations state that Palestinians do not have the adequate housing necessary to withstand frequent winter storms.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the victims, said on Tuesday that the deceased were two women, a girl, and a male adult.

In a separate incident, the local health authority announced on Tuesday that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of extreme cold overnight.

"The world has allowed us to experience death in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda following the burial. "While it is correct the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Crushed in Tent Collapse

According to Shifa hospital, three people of a one family — 72-year-old a man, his teenage granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an eight-metre tall wall fell on top of their tent in a area near the sea of Gaza City. At least five others were hurt in the event.

Their relatives on Tuesday started removing the rubble that had entombed their family and reconstructing the temporary homes for those who remained.

Humanitarian Distribution and Ongoing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were distributing shelter kits, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothes as well as nutrition and hygiene items across Gaza, stated the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of the population reside in improvised shelters since their homes were reduced to rubble over the course of the hostilities. Aid groups say an insufficient amount of shelter materials are entering Gaza during the truce.

Casualty Figures Since the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, which is part of the Hamas-run government, reports more than 440 individuals have been killed by gunfire and their bodies brought to hospitals after the ceasefire began. The authority maintains detailed fatality records that are seen as largely accurate by UN agencies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children’s agency Unicef, stated on that day that no fewer than one hundred children under the age of 18 – 60 males and 40 females – had been killed since the truce began due to military operations, such as drone strikes, air raids, tank shelling and employment of bullets. These numbers, he said, reflected cases where sufficient information had been gathered to justify recording, but the overall count is believed to be greater. He added that many hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"While 'explosions and gunfire have decreased' under the truce, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed reporters at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the international community now calls quiet would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he concluded.

Third Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of over 2 million individuals has been fighting to keep the freezing temperatures and storms away while facing lack of assistance and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is badly required throughout the colder season. This marks the 3rd cold season after the conflict between the state and Hamas began on 7 October 2023, when militants stormed into Israeli territory and murdered around 1,200 people and abducted 251 more into Gaza.

The local health authority reports more than seventy-one thousand four hundred Palestinians have been fatally injured in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.