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Strong winter gusts brought walls down onto fragile shelters housing people uprooted by war in Gaza, killing at least four people. These deaths highlights the dangerous situation that persist after more than two years of devastating airstrikes and severe shortages of aid.

Ceasefire Provides No Respite from Harsh Weather

While a ceasefire has been in effect from last fall, humanitarian organizations report that Palestinians broadly lack the sufficient housing required to withstand recurring winter storms.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which took in the victims, reported on this week that the dead were two women, a girl, and a male adult.

Separately, the local health authority stated on Tuesday that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of extreme cold during the night.

"International actors has enabled us to experience loss of life in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda after the funeral. "It’s true the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Buried in Tent Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, 3 people of a one family — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old relative, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an 26-foot high wall fell on top of their tent in a coastal area of Gaza City. No fewer than 5 additional people were hurt in the event.

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

Aid Distribution and Ongoing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were distributing shelter kits, plastic sheeting, blankets and clothing as well as food and hygiene supplies throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

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

Fatality Figures After the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, part of the Hamas-run government, reports over four hundred and forty individuals have been fatally shot by gunfire and their bodies taken to hospitals after the ceasefire went into effect. The ministry keeps comprehensive casualty data that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, said on Tuesday that no fewer than 100 children below eighteen years old – 60 males and forty girls – had been lost their lives since the truce started due to military operations, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, artillery fire and use of bullets. Those figures, he said, reflected incidents where enough details had been compiled to warrant recording, but the total toll is believed to be higher. He noted that many hundreds of children had been wounded.

"While 'explosions and gunfire have slowed' under the truce, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed journalists at a press conference in the Swiss city by video link from Gaza City. "Therefore what the world now calls calm would be considered a crisis in any other place," he said.

Third Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s population of over 2 million people has been fighting to fend off the freezing temperatures and storms at bay while enduring shortages of humanitarian aid and a absence of sturdier transitional shelter, which is urgently needed throughout the colder season. This marks the third cold season since the war between the state and Hamas started on a date in late 2023, when militants stormed into southern Israel and killed approximately twelve hundred people and abducted two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reports more than 71,400 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.