Harsh Winter Storms Take Five Lives in the Gaza Strip Amid Desperate Conditions in Makeshift Camps.

Powerful cold-season winds brought walls down onto flimsy tents housing people uprooted by conflict in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 people. These deaths highlights the dangerous living conditions that continue after more than 24 months of intense bombardment and critical shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Provides Little Respite from Severe Weather

Although a ceasefire has been in effect from October, aid groups report that Palestinians do not have the adequate shelter necessary to survive frequent winter storms.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which took in the bodies, said on Tuesday that the deceased include two women, a young female, and a man.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry announced on the same day that a one-year-old boy succumbed of extreme cold during the night.

"The world has enabled us to witness loss of life in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda after the burial. "It’s true the shelling may have paused for now, but we have seen all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Tent Collapse

As per the medical center, three people of a single family — 72-year-old a man, his 15-year-old relative, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an eight-metre tall wall collapsed onto their dwelling in a coastal area of the city. At least 5 additional people were injured in the incident.

Family members on Tuesday started clearing the debris that had buried their loved ones and reconstructing the tent shelters for survivors.

Humanitarian Distribution and Continuing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were handing out shelter kits, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothes as well as food and hygiene supplies throughout Gaza, stated the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of the population reside in improvised tents since their homes were reduced to ruins over the course of the war. Aid groups say not enough shelter materials are entering Gaza under the ceasefire.

Casualty Numbers After the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, part of the Hamas-run government, says over four hundred and forty individuals have been killed by gunfire and their bodies brought to hospitals since the truce began. The authority keeps detailed casualty records that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, said on Tuesday that at least 100 children below eighteen years old – 60 boys and forty girls – had been killed since the truce began because of armed actions, such as drone strikes, airstrikes, tank shelling and use of bullets. These numbers, he said, represented incidents where enough details had been gathered to justify documentation, but the overall count is believed to be higher. He noted that many hundreds of children had been wounded.

"Although 'bombings and gunfire have decreased' during the ceasefire, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed reporters at a UN briefing in Geneva by video from the Strip. "So what the world now calls calm would be viewed as a crisis anywhere else," he concluded.

Another Cold Season of Struggle

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 absence of sturdier transitional shelter, which is urgently needed throughout the colder season. This marks the 3rd cold season after the war involving Israel and Hamas began on a date in late 2023, when fighters attacked southern Israel and murdered around twelve hundred individuals and took hostage 251 others into Gaza.

The local health authority says over 71,400 people have been fatally injured in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.