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Powerful winter gusts brought walls down onto flimsy tents sheltering Palestinians displaced by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than 4 people. This tragedy underscores the perilous situation that persist after more than 24 months of devastating bombardment and severe shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Offers Little Respite from Harsh Weather

While a truce has been active since last fall, aid groups report that residents broadly lack the adequate shelter necessary to survive recurring cold-weather events.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which received the bodies, reported on Tuesday that the dead were two women, a young female, and a male adult.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry announced on the same day that a 12-month-old infant died of extreme cold overnight.

"International actors has enabled us to experience death in all its forms," stated a family member following the burial. "It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Crushed in Tent Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, three people of a one family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage relative, and his son's wife — were killed when an 26-foot high wall collapsed on top of their tent in a area near the sea of the city. No fewer than 5 additional people were hurt in the incident.

Family members on Tuesday began clearing the rubble that had entombed their loved ones and reconstructing the tent shelters for those who remained.

Humanitarian Efforts 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 throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of the population reside in makeshift shelters because their homes were turned into rubble over the course of the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations contend not enough building supplies are entering Gaza during the truce.

Fatality Numbers Since the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, reports over four hundred and forty people have been fatally shot by gunfire and their bodies taken to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect. The authority keeps comprehensive casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, stated on that day that no fewer than one hundred minors below eighteen years old – sixty males and forty girls – had been lost their lives since the ceasefire started because of military operations, including drone strikes, air raids, artillery fire and employment of bullets. These numbers, he explained, reflected incidents where sufficient information had been gathered to warrant recording, but the total toll is believed to be greater. He added that hundreds of minors had been injured.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have decreased' under the ceasefire, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed journalists at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video from Gaza City. "So what the world now terms quiet would be considered a catastrophe anywhere else," he concluded.

Another Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s population of more than two million people has been fighting to fend off the cold weather and storms away while facing lack of assistance and a lack of sturdier transitional shelter, which is urgently required during the colder season. It’s the third cold season after the conflict between Israel and the group started on a date in late 2023, when militants attacked Israeli territory and killed around twelve hundred individuals and took hostage 251 more into Gaza.

The local health authority says over 71,400 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent military campaign.