🔗 Share this article

Powerful cold-season winds caused walls to collapse onto flimsy shelters sheltering Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, killing at least four individuals. This tragedy highlights the dangerous living conditions that continue after over 24 months of intense airstrikes and critical lack of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Provides No Relief from Harsh Weather

Although a ceasefire has been active from October, aid groups state that Palestinians broadly lack the adequate shelter required to survive frequent winter storms.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the victims, reported on this week that the dead include a pair of adult females, a girl, and a male adult.

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

"The world has allowed us to witness loss of life in every possible way," stated Bassel Hamouda after the funeral. "While it is correct the bombing may have paused for now, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Shelter Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, 3 members of a one family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage relative, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an 26-foot tall wall fell onto their tent in a area near the sea of the city. At least five others were injured in the incident.

Their relatives on Tuesday began removing the debris that had buried their loved ones and rebuilding the tent shelters for survivors.

Aid Distribution and Continuing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were distributing shelter kits, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothing as well as food and sanitation items across Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

The majority of the population reside in makeshift shelters since their homes were reduced to ruins during the war. Aid groups say an insufficient amount of shelter materials are entering Gaza under the ceasefire.

Casualty Figures After the Truce

Local health authorities, part of the Hamas-run government, reports over 440 people have been killed by Israeli fire and their remains brought to hospitals after the ceasefire went into effect. The ministry maintains detailed casualty data that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and outside analysts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, stated on that day that no fewer than one hundred children below eighteen years old – 60 boys and 40 females – had been lost their lives since the truce started due to military operations, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, tank shelling and use of bullets. These numbers, he said, reflected incidents where enough details had been gathered to warrant recording, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He noted that many hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"Although 'bombings and shootings have slowed' under the ceasefire, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed reporters at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the international community now calls calm would be viewed as a catastrophe anywhere else," he said.

Another Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of more than 2 million people has been struggling to keep the cold weather and bad weather at bay while facing lack of assistance and a absence of more substantial transitional shelter, which is urgently needed during the colder season. This marks the third cold season after the conflict between Israel and Hamas started on a date in late 2023, when militants attacked southern Israel and killed approximately 1,200 individuals and abducted two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

The local health authority says over 71,400 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign.