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Strong winter winds caused walls to collapse onto fragile tents housing people displaced by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 people. These deaths highlights the dangerous situation that continue after over two years of intense bombardment and critical lack of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Provides Little Relief from Severe Elements

While a ceasefire has been in effect since last fall, aid groups report that residents broadly lack the sufficient shelter necessary to withstand recurring cold-weather events.

Medical staff at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which received the victims, said on this week that the deceased were two women, a young female, and a male adult.

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

"The world has enabled us to witness loss of life in every possible way," stated a family member after the burial. "While it is correct the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Crushed in Tent Collapse

According to Shifa hospital, 3 people of a one family — 72-year-old a man, his 15-year-old relative, and his son's wife — were killed when an 26-foot high wall fell on top of their tent in a coastal area of Gaza City. At least 5 others were injured in the event.

Family members on Tuesday began removing the rubble that had entombed their loved ones and rebuilding the tent shelters for survivors.

Aid Efforts and Ongoing Emergency

The UN and its aid organization allies were distributing shelter kits, tarps, blankets and clothing as well as nutrition and hygiene supplies across Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

The majority of the population live in makeshift shelters because their houses were turned into rubble during the war. Humanitarian organizations contend an insufficient amount of building supplies are entering Gaza under the truce.

Fatality Figures After the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, which is part of the administration, reports more than 440 people have been killed by Israeli fire and their bodies taken to hospitals since the truce went into effect. The authority keeps comprehensive fatality data that are seen as largely accurate by international bodies and outside analysts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, representing the UN children's fund, said on Tuesday that no fewer than one hundred minors under the age of 18 – sixty males and 40 females – had been lost their lives after the truce started due to armed actions, including drone strikes, airstrikes, tank shelling and use of bullets. Those figures, he explained, reflected incidents where sufficient information had been gathered to warrant documentation, but the total toll is believed to be greater. He noted that hundreds of children had been wounded.

"While 'bombings and shootings have decreased' during the truce, they have not ceased," the spokesperson told reporters at a press conference in the Swiss city by video link from Gaza City. "So what the international community now calls calm would be viewed as a crisis in any other place," he concluded.

Third Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s population of more than 2 million individuals has been struggling to keep the cold weather and storms at bay while facing shortages of humanitarian aid and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is badly required during the winter months. It’s the 3rd winter after the war between the state and Hamas started on a date in late 2023, when militants attacked southern Israel and killed around twelve hundred individuals and abducted 251 others into Gaza.

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