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Powerful winter winds brought walls down onto flimsy tents sheltering Palestinians uprooted by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than four individuals. These deaths underscores the dangerous situation that continue after over two years of devastating airstrikes and critical shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Provides No Respite from Harsh Elements

While a truce has been in effect from last fall, humanitarian organizations state that Palestinians do not have the sufficient housing required to withstand recurring winter storms.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the bodies, said on Tuesday that the dead were a pair of adult females, a young female, and a male adult.

In a separate incident, the local health authority announced on the same day that a one-year-old boy succumbed of extreme cold during the night.

"International actors has allowed us to witness death in every possible way," said a family member following the funeral. "While it is correct the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Crushed in Tent Collapse

According to Shifa hospital, 3 people of a one family — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an 26-foot tall wall collapsed onto their dwelling in a coastal area of the city. No fewer than 5 additional people were hurt in the incident.

Their relatives on that day started removing the rubble that had entombed their loved ones and rebuilding the temporary homes for survivors.

Humanitarian Efforts and Continuing Emergency

The UN and its aid organization allies were handing out shelter kits, tarps, blankets and clothes as well as nutrition and hygiene supplies throughout Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of Palestinians reside in makeshift tents since their houses were reduced to rubble during the war. Humanitarian organizations contend not enough building supplies are reaching Gaza under the ceasefire.

Casualty Numbers After the Ceasefire

The Gaza health ministry, which is part of the administration, says over 440 people have been fatally shot by gunfire and their remains brought to hospitals after the ceasefire went into effect. The ministry maintains comprehensive casualty records that are considered generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, representing the UN children's fund, said on that day that no fewer than one hundred minors under the age of 18 – sixty males and forty girls – had been lost their lives after the truce began because of armed actions, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, artillery fire and employment of bullets. These numbers, he said, represented cases where enough details had been gathered to justify documentation, but the total toll is believed to be greater. He noted that hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have slowed' during the truce, they have not ceased," Elder informed journalists at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from Gaza City. "So what the world now terms calm would be considered a crisis anywhere else," he concluded.

Another Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of over two million individuals has been fighting to fend off the cold weather and storms away while enduring lack of humanitarian aid and a absence of more substantial temporary housing, which is urgently needed during the colder season. It’s the third cold season since the war involving the state and Hamas began on 7 October 2023, when fighters attacked southern Israel and murdered around 1,200 people and took hostage 251 more into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says more than seventy-one thousand four hundred people have been fatally injured in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.