🔗 Share this article

Strong winter gusts brought walls down onto flimsy shelters housing Palestinians uprooted by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 people. These deaths underscores the dangerous living conditions that continue after more than two years of intense bombardment and severe shortages of aid.

Ceasefire Provides No Respite from Severe Elements

Although a ceasefire has been active since October, aid groups state that residents do not have the adequate shelter required to survive recurring cold-weather events.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which received the victims, said on this week that the deceased were two women, a young female, and a male adult.

In a separate incident, the local health authority stated on the same day that a one-year-old boy died of hypothermia during the night.

"The world has allowed us to witness death 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 all imaginable reasons of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Shelter Collapse

As per the medical center, 3 people of a single family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage 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 Gaza City. At least five others were hurt in the incident.

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

Aid Efforts and Ongoing Crisis

The UN and its aid organization allies were distributing tents, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothing as well as nutrition and sanitation supplies throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of Palestinians reside in makeshift shelters because their homes were reduced to ruins during the war. Aid groups contend not enough building supplies are reaching Gaza under the ceasefire.

Fatality Figures After the Truce

Local health authorities, which is part of the administration, reports more than four hundred and forty people have been fatally shot by Israeli fire and their bodies taken to hospitals after the ceasefire went into effect. The authority keeps detailed casualty data that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and outside analysts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, representing the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on that day that at least one hundred children below eighteen years old – 60 boys and 40 females – had been killed after the truce started because of armed actions, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, artillery fire and employment of bullets. These numbers, he said, represented cases where enough details had been compiled to justify documentation, but the total toll is believed to be greater. He added that hundreds of minors had been injured.

"Although 'bombings and gunfire have decreased' under the ceasefire, they have not stopped," the spokesperson informed journalists at a press conference in Geneva by video link from Gaza City. "So what the international community now calls calm would be considered a crisis in any other place," he said.

Third Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of more than 2 million people has been struggling to fend off the cold weather and storms at bay while facing lack of assistance and a absence of more substantial transitional shelter, which is urgently needed throughout the colder season. This marks the third cold season after the conflict involving Israel and the group started on a date in late 2023, when fighters stormed into Israeli territory and killed around twelve hundred individuals and took hostage 251 others into Gaza.

The local health authority reports more than 71,400 Palestinians have been fatally injured in the subsequent military campaign.