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Powerful winter gusts caused walls to collapse onto flimsy tents sheltering Palestinians uprooted by conflict in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 individuals. These deaths underscores the dangerous situation that persist after over 24 months of devastating airstrikes and severe shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Provides No Relief from Severe Elements

Although a ceasefire has been in effect from October, humanitarian organizations report that Palestinians broadly lack the sufficient shelter required to withstand recurring winter storms.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the bodies, said on Tuesday that the dead were two women, a young female, and a male adult.

In a separate incident, the local health authority announced on Tuesday that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of extreme cold during the night.

"The world has enabled us to experience loss of life in every possible way," said a family member after the funeral. "While it is correct the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Tent Collapse

As per the medical center, 3 people of a one family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an eight-metre tall wall fell onto their dwelling in a coastal area of Gaza City. At least 5 others were hurt in the event.

Family members on that day began clearing the debris that had entombed their loved ones and reconstructing the tent shelters for survivors.

Aid Distribution and Ongoing Emergency

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

Most of Palestinians reside in makeshift shelters since their houses were reduced to rubble over the course of the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations say an insufficient amount of building supplies are entering Gaza during the truce.

Casualty Figures Since the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, reports over four hundred and forty individuals have been fatally shot by gunfire and their remains taken to hospitals since the ceasefire began. The ministry keeps detailed fatality data that are seen as generally reliable by international bodies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on that day that at least one hundred children under the age of 18 – sixty males and 40 females – had been lost their lives after the ceasefire started due to armed actions, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, tank shelling and employment of live ammunition. These numbers, he explained, reflected incidents where sufficient information had been gathered to warrant documentation, but the total toll is believed to be greater. He noted that many hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have slowed' during the truce, they have not ceased," Elder informed journalists at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the international community now calls calm would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he said.

Third Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of over two million individuals has been fighting to fend off the freezing temperatures and bad weather away while enduring lack of humanitarian aid and a absence of sturdier temporary housing, which is badly needed during the winter months. It’s the 3rd cold season after the war involving the state and Hamas began on a date in late 2023, when militants 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.