Harsh Winter Weather Systems Claim 5 Victims in the Gaza Strip Amid Desperate Living Situations in Temporary Camps.

Strong cold-season winds caused walls to collapse onto fragile shelters housing Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, killing at least four people. These deaths underscores the dangerous situation that continue after over 24 months of devastating bombardment and critical shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Provides Little Relief from Harsh Weather

Although a truce has been in effect since October, aid groups state that residents do not have the sufficient shelter necessary to withstand recurring winter storms.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the victims, reported on this week that the dead were 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.

"The world has enabled us to experience loss of life in every possible way," stated Bassel Hamouda following the funeral. "While it is correct the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen all imaginable reasons of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Buried in Shelter Collapse

As per the medical center, 3 people of a one family — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old relative, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an eight-metre high wall fell on top of their dwelling in a coastal area of Gaza City. At least five others were injured in the event.

Family members on Tuesday started removing the debris that had entombed their loved ones and rebuilding the tent shelters for survivors.

Aid Efforts and Ongoing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were handing out shelter kits, tarps, blankets and clothes as well as food and sanitation items throughout Gaza, stated the relevant UN coordination body.

Most of the population live in makeshift tents since their homes were reduced to rubble over the course of the war. Aid groups say an insufficient amount of building supplies are entering Gaza during the truce.

Fatality Figures After the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, part of the Hamas-run government, says over 440 people have been killed by gunfire and their bodies taken to hospitals since the truce began. The authority keeps detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by international bodies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children's fund, stated on that day that at least one hundred minors under the age of 18 – sixty boys and 40 females – had been lost their lives after the truce began because of military operations, such as drone strikes, air raids, artillery fire and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he said, represented cases where sufficient information had been gathered to justify documentation, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He noted that hundreds of minors had been injured.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have decreased' under the ceasefire, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed journalists at a press conference in Geneva by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the international community now calls quiet would be considered a crisis in any other place," he concluded.

Third Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people has been struggling to keep the freezing temperatures and storms away while facing lack of assistance and a lack of sturdier temporary housing, which is badly needed throughout the winter months. It’s the third cold season after the war involving Israel and the group began on 7 October 2023, when fighters attacked southern Israel and killed around twelve hundred people and abducted two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

The local health authority says more than seventy-one thousand four hundred Palestinians have been fatally injured in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.