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Strong cold-season winds caused walls to collapse upon flimsy tents housing Palestinians uprooted by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than four people. This tragedy underscores the perilous living conditions that persist after more than 24 months of devastating bombardment and critical lack of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Provides No Respite from Harsh Elements

While a ceasefire has been in effect from last fall, aid groups report that Palestinians do not have the sufficient shelter required to survive recurring winter storms.

Medical staff at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the victims, said on this week that the dead were two women, a girl, and a man.

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

"International actors has enabled us to witness loss of life in every possible way," said a family member following the burial. "It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen all imaginable reasons of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Crushed in Shelter Collapse

According to Shifa hospital, 3 people of a single household — elderly a man, his 15-year-old relative, and his son's wife — were killed when an 26-foot high wall fell onto their dwelling in a coastal area of Gaza City. No fewer than five additional people were injured in the event.

Family members on that day started removing the debris that had entombed their family and rebuilding the tent shelters for those who remained.

Aid Distribution and Continuing Crisis

The UN and its aid organization allies were distributing tents, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothing as well as food and hygiene items across Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

The majority of the population live in improvised tents because their houses were turned into rubble during the war. Aid groups say an insufficient amount of building supplies are reaching Gaza under the ceasefire.

Casualty Numbers Since the Truce

Local health authorities, which is part of the administration, reports more than four hundred and forty individuals have been fatally shot by Israeli fire and their remains taken to hospitals since the ceasefire began. The authority maintains comprehensive casualty records that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, representing the UN children's fund, stated on that day that no fewer than one hundred children under the age of 18 – 60 males and 40 females – had been killed since the ceasefire started due to military operations, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, artillery fire and use of bullets. Those figures, he said, reflected incidents where enough details had been gathered to justify documentation, but the overall count is believed to be greater. He noted that many hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"While 'bombings and shootings have decreased' during the ceasefire, they have not stopped," Elder informed reporters at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video from the Strip. "So what the international community now terms calm would be viewed as a catastrophe anywhere else," he said.

Third Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of more than 2 million people has been struggling to keep the freezing temperatures and storms at bay while enduring lack of humanitarian aid and a absence of sturdier transitional shelter, which is urgently required throughout the winter months. This marks the third winter since the conflict involving the state and Hamas began on 7 October 2023, when fighters stormed into southern Israel and killed around twelve hundred people and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza.

The local health authority reports more than seventy-one thousand four hundred people have been killed in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.