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Powerful cold-season winds brought walls down upon flimsy shelters sheltering people displaced by conflict in Gaza, killing at least 4 people. These deaths underscores the perilous living conditions that continue after more than two years of intense bombardment and critical lack of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Provides No Respite from Severe Weather

While a ceasefire has been in effect since October, aid groups state that residents do not have the adequate housing required to survive frequent winter storms.

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

In a separate incident, the local health authority stated on the same day that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of hypothermia during the night.

"The world has allowed us to experience death in all its forms," said Bassel Hamouda after the burial. "While it is correct the shelling may have paused for now, 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, 3 members of a single family — 72-year-old a man, his 15-year-old relative, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an 26-foot tall wall collapsed on top of their dwelling in a area near the sea of the city. No fewer than 5 others were injured in the event.

Their relatives on that day started clearing the rubble that had entombed their loved ones and reconstructing the tent shelters for those who remained.

Humanitarian Distribution and Ongoing Emergency

The UN and its humanitarian partners were distributing shelter kits, tarps, warm covers and clothing as well as food and sanitation supplies across Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of Palestinians reside in makeshift tents since their houses were turned into ruins during the war. Humanitarian organizations say not enough building supplies are entering Gaza during the ceasefire.

Casualty Figures Since the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, reports over 440 people have been killed by Israeli fire and their remains brought to hospitals since the ceasefire began. The authority keeps comprehensive casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by international bodies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, said on that day that at least one hundred children under the age of 18 – sixty boys and 40 girls – had been killed since the ceasefire started because of armed actions, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, artillery fire and employment of live ammunition. These numbers, he explained, reflected incidents where sufficient details had been gathered to warrant recording, but the overall count is believed to be greater. He noted that many hundreds of children had been wounded.

"Although 'bombings and shootings have decreased' during the ceasefire, they have not ceased," Elder told journalists at a press conference in Geneva by video link from the Strip. "Therefore what the world now terms quiet would be considered a catastrophe anywhere else," he said.

Third Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people has been struggling to keep the freezing temperatures and bad weather at bay while facing shortages of assistance and a absence of sturdier temporary housing, which is badly required during the winter months. It’s the 3rd winter after the war between the state and Hamas began on a date in late 2023, when fighters stormed into Israeli territory and murdered around 1,200 people and abducted 251 others into Gaza.

The local health authority reports more than 71,400 people have been killed in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.