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Strong cold-season gusts brought walls down upon flimsy shelters housing Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than four people. This tragedy underscores the perilous situation that continue after over two years of intense bombardment and severe shortages of aid.

Truce Provides Little Relief from Harsh Elements

While a truce has been in effect from October, humanitarian organizations report that Palestinians broadly lack the adequate shelter necessary to survive recurring cold-weather events.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the victims, said on Tuesday that the deceased include two women, a young female, and a male adult.

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

"The world has enabled us to witness loss of life in all its forms," said a family member after the burial. "While it is correct the shelling may have paused for now, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Tent Collapse

As per the medical center, 3 people of a single family — elderly a man, his 15-year-old relative, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an 26-foot tall wall fell onto their tent in a coastal area of the city. No fewer than five additional people were injured in the incident.

Their relatives on Tuesday started clearing the rubble that had buried their loved ones and reconstructing the tent shelters for those who remained.

Humanitarian Distribution and Continuing 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 across Gaza, said the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of Palestinians reside in makeshift shelters because their homes were turned into ruins during the war. Humanitarian organizations say an insufficient amount of building supplies are entering Gaza under the ceasefire.

Fatality Numbers Since the Ceasefire

The Gaza health ministry, which is part of the administration, says over four hundred and forty people have been fatally shot by Israeli fire and their remains brought to hospitals after the truce began. The ministry maintains detailed fatality records that are seen as generally reliable by international bodies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on Tuesday that at least 100 children under the age of 18 – sixty boys and forty girls – had been killed after the ceasefire started due to armed actions, such as drone strikes, air raids, artillery fire and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he said, represented incidents where enough information had been compiled to justify documentation, but the overall count is believed to be higher. He noted that many hundreds of children had been injured.

"While 'explosions and shootings have decreased' under the ceasefire, they have not stopped," the spokesperson told reporters at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the international community now terms quiet would be viewed as a crisis anywhere else," he said.

Another Winter of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of over two million individuals has been fighting to fend off the freezing temperatures and bad weather away while facing shortages of assistance and a lack of sturdier transitional shelter, which is urgently needed during the winter months. This marks the third winter since the conflict between Israel and Hamas started on a date in late 2023, when militants attacked southern Israel and killed approximately twelve hundred individuals and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reports more than 71,400 people have been killed in the subsequent military campaign.