🔗 Share this article

Strong winter winds caused walls to collapse onto flimsy shelters sheltering Palestinians uprooted by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than four people. These deaths highlights the dangerous living conditions that continue after more than two years of devastating bombardment and critical lack of aid.

Ceasefire Provides No Respite from Harsh Elements

While a ceasefire has been in effect since October, humanitarian organizations state that residents do not have the adequate shelter required to survive recurring cold-weather events.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the victims, said on this week that the deceased were a pair of adult females, a girl, and a male adult.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry announced on the same day that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of extreme cold during the night.

"The world has enabled us to experience death in every possible way," stated a family member following the funeral. "It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, 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 people of a single family — 72-year-old a man, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an eight-metre tall wall collapsed on top of their dwelling in a area near the sea of Gaza City. At least five others were injured in the incident.

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

Aid Efforts and Continuing Emergency

The UN and its aid organization allies were distributing tents, tarps, blankets and clothes as well as nutrition and sanitation supplies throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of the population live in makeshift shelters since their houses were reduced to rubble over the course of the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations say not enough shelter materials are reaching Gaza during the truce.

Casualty Numbers Since the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, part of the Hamas-run government, says over 440 individuals have been killed by gunfire and their bodies taken to hospitals since the truce went into effect. The authority maintains comprehensive casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and outside analysts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, stated on Tuesday that at least 100 minors below eighteen years old – sixty males and 40 girls – had been lost their lives after the ceasefire started because of armed actions, such as drone strikes, airstrikes, tank shelling and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, reflected incidents where enough information had been gathered to warrant recording, but the overall count is believed to be higher. He added that hundreds of minors had been injured.

"While 'bombings and shootings have slowed' under the ceasefire, they have not stopped," Elder told journalists at a press conference in Geneva by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the world now terms quiet would be considered a catastrophe anywhere else," he said.

Another Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s population of more than 2 million individuals has been fighting to keep the cold weather and bad weather at bay while facing lack of humanitarian aid and a lack of more substantial transitional shelter, which is urgently required throughout the winter months. This marks the third winter since the conflict involving Israel and the group began on 7 October 2023, when militants attacked Israeli territory and murdered approximately 1,200 individuals and took hostage 251 more into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says over 71,400 people have been fatally injured in the subsequent military campaign.