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Strong winter gusts caused walls to collapse upon flimsy shelters housing people displaced by war in Gaza, killing at least four individuals. This tragedy underscores the perilous situation that continue after more than two years of intense airstrikes and severe lack of aid.

Ceasefire Offers Little Relief from Severe Weather

Although a ceasefire has been active since last fall, humanitarian organizations report that residents do not have the adequate shelter required to withstand recurring winter storms.

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

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

"International actors has enabled us to experience death in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda after the burial. "While it is correct the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Crushed in Shelter Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, three members of a one household — elderly a man, his teenage granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an eight-metre high wall collapsed onto their dwelling in a coastal area of Gaza City. No fewer than five additional people were hurt in the incident.

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

Aid Distribution and Ongoing Crisis

The UN and its aid organization allies were distributing shelter kits, plastic sheeting, blankets and clothes as well as nutrition and sanitation supplies throughout Gaza, said the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of Palestinians live in makeshift tents because their homes were turned into ruins over the course of the hostilities. Aid groups contend not enough building supplies are entering Gaza during the truce.

Fatality Numbers Since the Truce

Local health authorities, part of the administration, reports over 440 individuals have been fatally shot by gunfire and their bodies brought to hospitals after the ceasefire went into effect. The authority keeps comprehensive fatality records that are seen as generally reliable by international bodies and outside analysts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, stated on Tuesday that at least one hundred children under the age of 18 – 60 males and forty girls – had been killed since the truce began due to military operations, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, artillery fire and employment of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, reflected incidents where sufficient information had been compiled to warrant documentation, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He noted that hundreds of children had been wounded.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have decreased' during the truce, they have not ceased," Elder told journalists at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the international community now terms quiet would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he concluded.

Third Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s population of more than two million people has been struggling to fend off the freezing temperatures and storms at bay while facing shortages of humanitarian aid and a lack of more substantial transitional shelter, which is badly required during the winter months. It’s the 3rd winter since the conflict involving the state and the group started on a date in late 2023, when fighters attacked southern Israel and murdered around 1,200 individuals and abducted two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says more than 71,400 people have been fatally injured in the subsequent military campaign.