🔗 Share this article

Powerful winter gusts caused walls to collapse onto fragile tents sheltering Palestinians uprooted by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than four individuals. These deaths underscores the perilous situation that persist after more than two years of devastating bombardment and severe shortages of aid.

Truce Offers Little Relief from Harsh Elements

While a ceasefire has been in effect since October, aid groups report that residents do not have the adequate housing necessary to survive recurring cold-weather events.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which received the bodies, reported on Tuesday that the dead include a pair of adult females, a young female, and a man.

In a separate incident, the local health authority announced on the same day that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of hypothermia overnight.

"International actors has allowed us to witness loss of life in all its forms," stated Bassel Hamouda after the funeral. "It’s true the bombing may have paused for now, but we have seen all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Crushed in Shelter Collapse

According to the medical center, 3 people of a single household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an 26-foot tall wall collapsed on top of their dwelling in a area near the sea of Gaza City. At least 5 additional people were hurt in the incident.

Family members on that day started clearing the debris that had buried their loved ones and reconstructing the temporary homes for those who remained.

Humanitarian Distribution and Continuing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were handing out shelter kits, tarps, warm covers and clothes as well as food and sanitation supplies throughout Gaza, stated the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of the population reside in improvised tents because their houses were reduced to ruins over the course of the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations say not enough building supplies are reaching Gaza under the ceasefire.

Fatality Numbers After the Truce

Local health authorities, which is part of the Hamas-run government, says over four hundred and forty individuals have been killed by Israeli fire and their remains taken to hospitals after the ceasefire began. The authority keeps comprehensive fatality records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on Tuesday that at least one hundred minors below eighteen years old – 60 boys and forty girls – had been lost their lives after the ceasefire started due to military operations, including drone strikes, air raids, artillery fire and employment of live ammunition. These numbers, he said, represented incidents where sufficient details had been compiled to justify documentation, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He added that many hundreds of minors had been injured.

"While 'explosions and gunfire have decreased' during the ceasefire, they have not stopped," Elder informed journalists at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the world now terms calm would be viewed as a crisis anywhere else," he said.

Third Winter of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of over 2 million people has been struggling to fend off the freezing temperatures and bad weather at bay while enduring shortages of assistance and a lack of sturdier transitional shelter, which is badly required during the winter months. This marks the third cold season after the war involving Israel and Hamas began on 7 October 2023, when militants stormed into southern Israel and murdered around 1,200 individuals and abducted 251 more into Gaza.

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