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Powerful cold-season gusts caused walls to collapse onto fragile shelters sheltering Palestinians displaced by conflict in Gaza, killing at least 4 people. This tragedy underscores the dangerous living conditions that persist after more than two years of devastating airstrikes and severe lack of aid.

Truce Provides No Relief from Harsh Weather

While a truce has been in effect since October, aid groups state that residents do not have the sufficient housing necessary to survive frequent cold-weather events.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the victims, reported on Tuesday that the deceased were two women, a girl, and a male adult.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry announced on Tuesday that a 12-month-old infant died of extreme cold during the night.

"The world has enabled us to witness death in every possible way," stated Bassel Hamouda following the funeral. "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 Buried in Shelter Collapse

As per the medical center, three members of a single household — elderly a man, his teenage granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an 26-foot high wall fell onto their tent in a coastal area of Gaza City. No fewer than 5 additional people were hurt in the incident.

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

Aid Efforts and Ongoing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were distributing shelter kits, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothing as well as food and hygiene supplies across Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of the population live in makeshift shelters since their homes were turned into rubble over the course of the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations contend not enough shelter materials are reaching Gaza under the ceasefire.

Fatality Figures After the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, part of the administration, says over four hundred and forty people have been killed by Israeli fire and their remains brought to hospitals after the truce went into effect. The ministry maintains detailed fatality records that are seen as largely accurate by UN agencies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children's fund, said on that day that at least 100 minors under the age of 18 – 60 boys and forty girls – had been lost their lives after the ceasefire began due to armed actions, such as drone strikes, air raids, artillery fire and use of live ammunition. These numbers, he said, reflected incidents where sufficient information had been gathered to warrant documentation, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He added that many hundreds of children had been injured.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have decreased' under the truce, they have not ceased," Elder informed reporters at a UN briefing in Geneva by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the world now terms quiet would be considered a catastrophe anywhere else," he concluded.

Third Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s population of over two million individuals has been fighting to fend off the cold weather and bad weather at bay while facing lack of humanitarian aid and a absence of sturdier transitional shelter, which is badly needed throughout the colder season. This marks the 3rd cold season since the war involving the state and the group began on a date in late 2023, when fighters stormed into southern Israel and killed approximately twelve hundred individuals and took hostage 251 more into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says over 71,400 people have been fatally injured in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.