🔗 Share this article

Powerful winter gusts brought walls down upon fragile shelters housing Palestinians uprooted by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of at least four individuals. This tragedy underscores the dangerous situation that persist after more than two years of intense bombardment and severe shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Provides No Relief from Severe Weather

Although a ceasefire has been in effect from last fall, aid groups report that Palestinians do not have the sufficient shelter required to survive recurring cold-weather events.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the victims, said on this week that the dead include two women, a girl, and a male adult.

Separately, the local health authority stated on the same day that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of extreme cold overnight.

"International actors has allowed us to witness death in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda after the funeral. "While it is correct the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Buried in Tent Collapse

As per the medical center, 3 members of a one household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage relative, and his son's wife — were killed 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 Tuesday started removing the debris that had buried their loved ones and reconstructing the temporary homes for survivors.

Aid Distribution and Continuing Emergency

The UN and its aid organization allies were handing out tents, tarps, warm covers and clothes as well as food and sanitation items throughout Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of the population reside in improvised tents since their houses were reduced to ruins over the course of the war. Humanitarian organizations contend an insufficient amount of shelter materials are entering Gaza under the ceasefire.

Casualty Figures Since the Truce

Local health authorities, part of the administration, says more than four hundred and forty individuals have been fatally shot by Israeli fire and their bodies brought to hospitals since the ceasefire began. The ministry maintains comprehensive casualty data that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children's fund, stated on Tuesday that at least one hundred children below eighteen years old – 60 males and forty girls – had been killed since the ceasefire began due to military operations, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, tank shelling and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, represented cases where sufficient information had been compiled to warrant documentation, but the overall count is believed to be greater. He noted that many hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"Although 'bombings and shootings have decreased' under the ceasefire, they have not stopped," the spokesperson told journalists at a UN briefing in Geneva by video link from Gaza City. "So what the international community now terms calm would be viewed as a crisis anywhere else," he said.

Third Winter of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of more than two million people has been struggling to keep the freezing temperatures and bad weather away while enduring lack of assistance and a absence of more substantial temporary housing, which is urgently needed throughout the winter months. This marks the third cold season after the war between Israel and the group started on 7 October 2023, when fighters attacked southern Israel and killed approximately twelve hundred individuals and abducted two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reports more than seventy-one thousand four hundred people have been fatally injured in Israel’s military campaign.