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Strong cold-season winds brought walls down onto fragile tents housing Palestinians uprooted by conflict in Gaza, killing at least four people. This tragedy underscores the perilous situation that persist after over 24 months of devastating airstrikes and severe shortages of aid.

Truce Offers No Relief from Severe Weather

Although a truce has been in effect from October, aid groups state that Palestinians do not have the sufficient shelter required to survive frequent winter storms.

Medical staff at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which received the victims, reported on Tuesday that the dead were two women, a girl, and a man.

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

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

Relatives Buried in Shelter Collapse

As per the medical center, three people of a one family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old relative, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an eight-metre tall wall collapsed on top of their dwelling in a coastal area of the city. No fewer than five others were injured in the event.

Their relatives on that day started removing the debris that had entombed their family and rebuilding the temporary homes for those who remained.

Aid Efforts and Ongoing Emergency

The UN and its aid organization allies were distributing tents, plastic sheeting, blankets and clothing as well as food and hygiene items throughout Gaza, stated the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of the population reside in improvised shelters because their homes were turned into rubble during the hostilities. Aid groups contend an insufficient amount of building supplies are entering Gaza under the truce.

Casualty Numbers After the Ceasefire

The Gaza health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, says over four hundred and forty individuals have been killed by Israeli fire and their bodies taken to hospitals after the ceasefire went into effect. The authority keeps comprehensive casualty data that are seen as largely accurate by international bodies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children's fund, said on Tuesday that no fewer than one hundred children under the age of 18 – 60 boys and forty females – had been killed after the ceasefire began because of military operations, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, tank shelling and employment of bullets. These numbers, he explained, represented incidents where enough details had been gathered to justify recording, but the total toll is believed to be higher. He added that hundreds of children had been injured.

"Although 'bombings and shootings have slowed' during the truce, they have not stopped," the spokesperson informed journalists at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from Gaza City. "So what the international community now calls calm would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he concluded.

Third Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people has been struggling to keep the freezing temperatures and bad weather away while enduring shortages of assistance and a absence of sturdier transitional shelter, which is badly needed throughout the colder season. This marks the third cold season after the conflict between the state and the group began on 7 October 2023, when militants stormed into Israeli territory and killed around 1,200 individuals and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

The local health authority says over 71,400 people have been fatally injured in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.