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Strong winter winds brought walls down onto fragile tents sheltering people displaced by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than four people. These deaths underscores the perilous situation that continue after over two years of intense bombardment and severe lack of aid.

Truce Provides Little Respite from Harsh Weather

Although a truce has been in effect from October, humanitarian organizations state that residents broadly lack the sufficient housing necessary to survive frequent winter storms.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which received the bodies, said on Tuesday that the deceased include two women, a girl, and a man.

In a separate incident, the Gaza health ministry announced on Tuesday that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of extreme cold during the night.

"The world has allowed us to experience death in every possible way," stated Bassel Hamouda after the funeral. "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."

Family Buried in Shelter Collapse

As per the medical center, 3 members of a one family — elderly a man, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his son's wife — were killed when an eight-metre high wall collapsed onto their tent in a coastal area of the city. At least five others were injured in the incident.

Their relatives on Tuesday started removing the debris that had entombed their family and rebuilding the tent shelters for those who remained.

Aid Distribution and Ongoing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were handing out shelter kits, plastic sheeting, blankets and clothing as well as nutrition and sanitation supplies throughout Gaza, said the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

The majority of the population live in makeshift shelters because their homes were turned into ruins during the war. Humanitarian organizations say not enough building supplies are entering Gaza under the truce.

Casualty Figures After the Truce

Local health authorities, which is part of the Hamas-run government, says over 440 people have been fatally shot by gunfire and their bodies brought to hospitals since the truce went into effect. The authority maintains comprehensive fatality records that are seen as largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, representing the UN children's fund, stated on Tuesday that at least 100 children below eighteen years old – sixty boys and 40 females – had been killed since the truce started due to military operations, such as drone strikes, airstrikes, tank shelling and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, represented incidents where sufficient details had been compiled to warrant documentation, but the overall count is expected to be greater. He added that many hundreds of children had been wounded.

"While 'explosions and shootings have decreased' under the ceasefire, they have not stopped," Elder informed journalists at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video from the Strip. "Therefore what the world now calls calm would be viewed as a catastrophe in any other place," he said.

Third Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of more than two million individuals has been struggling to fend off the freezing temperatures and storms away while enduring shortages of assistance and a absence of more substantial transitional shelter, which is badly needed during the winter months. It’s the third winter after the war between Israel and Hamas began on a date in late 2023, when militants attacked southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people and took hostage 251 more into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says more than seventy-one thousand four hundred Palestinians have been fatally injured in Israel’s military campaign.