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Strong cold-season gusts caused walls to collapse onto flimsy shelters housing Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, killing at least four individuals. This tragedy underscores the dangerous living conditions that persist after more than 24 months of devastating airstrikes and critical shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Offers Little Respite from Harsh Weather

While a ceasefire has been active since last fall, aid groups report that residents broadly lack the adequate shelter required to withstand recurring cold-weather events.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the victims, said on Tuesday that the deceased were two women, a girl, and a male adult.

In a separate incident, the Gaza health ministry announced on Tuesday that a one-year-old boy died of hypothermia overnight.

"The world has enabled us to witness death in all its forms," stated Bassel Hamouda after the burial. "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 one family — 72-year-old a man, his 15-year-old relative, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an 26-foot tall wall collapsed on top of their dwelling in a area near the sea of Gaza City. At least five others were hurt in the incident.

Their relatives on Tuesday started removing the debris that had entombed their loved ones and rebuilding the temporary homes for survivors.

Aid Distribution and Continuing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were distributing tents, tarps, blankets and clothing as well as food and hygiene items throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of the population live in improvised shelters because their houses were reduced to rubble during the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations contend not enough building supplies are entering Gaza under the truce.

Casualty Figures After the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, which is part of the administration, says over 440 people have been killed by Israeli fire and their remains taken to hospitals after the truce began. The ministry keeps detailed casualty data that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children's fund, said on Tuesday that no fewer than 100 children below eighteen years old – sixty males and 40 females – had been lost their lives since the truce started because of military operations, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, tank shelling and use of bullets. These numbers, he explained, reflected incidents where enough information had been gathered to warrant documentation, but the total toll is believed to be greater. He noted that hundreds of children had been injured.

"Although 'explosions and shootings have slowed' under the ceasefire, they have not ceased," Elder informed reporters at a UN briefing in Geneva by video link from the Strip. "Therefore what the international community now terms calm would be viewed as a crisis in any other place," he said.

Third Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s population of over two million people has been fighting to keep the freezing temperatures and storms at bay while facing lack of assistance and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is urgently needed throughout the winter months. It’s the third cold season since the war between Israel and the group started on a date in late 2023, when militants attacked Israeli territory and killed approximately twelve hundred individuals and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reports more than 71,400 people have been fatally injured in the subsequent military campaign.