🔗 Share this article

Powerful winter winds brought walls down onto flimsy shelters housing Palestinians uprooted by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 individuals. This tragedy highlights the dangerous situation that continue after more than two years of devastating airstrikes and severe shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Offers No Relief from Severe Elements

Although a truce has been in effect from last fall, aid groups state that residents do not have the sufficient housing required to withstand recurring winter storms.

Medical staff at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the victims, said on Tuesday that the deceased were two women, a young female, and a man.

In a separate incident, the Gaza health ministry stated on the same day that a 12-month-old infant died of hypothermia overnight.

"International actors has enabled us to witness death in every possible way," stated a family member after the funeral. "It’s true the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Crushed in Shelter Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, 3 members of a one family — 72-year-old a man, his teenage relative, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an eight-metre tall wall collapsed onto their tent in a coastal area of the city. At least 5 others were hurt in the event.

Their relatives on that day began clearing the debris that had entombed their family and rebuilding the tent shelters for those who remained.

Humanitarian Efforts and Ongoing Crisis

The UN and its humanitarian partners were handing out tents, tarps, warm covers and clothing as well as food and hygiene supplies across Gaza, stated the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of the population live in makeshift shelters because their houses were turned into rubble over the course of the war. Humanitarian organizations say an insufficient amount of building supplies are entering Gaza under the truce.

Casualty Numbers After the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, reports more than 440 individuals have been killed by gunfire and their remains brought to hospitals since the ceasefire began. The authority keeps detailed casualty records that are seen as largely accurate by UN agencies and outside analysts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, said on Tuesday that at least one hundred minors under the age of 18 – sixty boys and 40 females – had been killed since the ceasefire started due to armed actions, including drone strikes, air raids, tank shelling and employment of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, reflected incidents where enough information had been gathered to justify recording, but the overall count is believed to be higher. He added that hundreds of children had been injured.

"While 'bombings and gunfire have decreased' under the truce, they have not ceased," Elder told journalists at a press conference in Geneva by video link from the Strip. "Therefore what the international community now terms quiet would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he concluded.

Another Winter of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of over 2 million people has been struggling to fend off the cold weather and storms at bay while facing lack of assistance and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is badly needed throughout the colder season. This marks the third winter after the war involving Israel and the group started on a date in late 2023, when militants stormed into southern Israel and killed approximately twelve hundred people and abducted two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reports more than 71,400 Palestinians have been fatally injured in Israel’s military campaign.