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Strong cold-season winds caused walls to collapse onto fragile tents housing people uprooted by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of at least 4 individuals. These deaths highlights the perilous situation that continue after over 24 months of devastating bombardment and severe lack of aid.

Truce Offers Little Relief from Harsh Weather

Although a ceasefire has been active since October, humanitarian organizations report that Palestinians do not have the adequate housing required to withstand recurring winter storms.

Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the bodies, reported on Tuesday that the deceased include a pair of adult females, a girl, and a male adult.

In a separate incident, the local health authority stated on Tuesday that a one-year-old boy succumbed of hypothermia overnight.

"The world has allowed us to witness death in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda after the burial. "It’s true the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Crushed in Shelter Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, 3 members of a single household — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his son's wife — were killed when an 26-foot tall wall fell on top of their dwelling in a area near the sea of the city. At least five additional people were hurt in the event.

Family members on Tuesday started clearing the rubble that had buried their loved ones and reconstructing the tent shelters for those who remained.

Humanitarian Efforts and Ongoing Emergency

The UN and its aid organization allies were distributing shelter kits, plastic sheeting, blankets and clothing as well as nutrition and sanitation supplies throughout Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

The majority of Palestinians reside in improvised shelters because their homes were turned into ruins during the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations contend not enough shelter materials are entering Gaza under the truce.

Fatality Figures After the Truce

Local health authorities, which is part of the Hamas-run government, says more than 440 individuals have been fatally shot by Israeli fire and their bodies taken to hospitals since the truce began. The ministry maintains comprehensive casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and outside analysts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, representing the UN children's fund, said on that day that no fewer than 100 children under the age of 18 – 60 males and forty females – had been lost their lives since the truce started due to armed actions, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, tank shelling and employment of bullets. These numbers, he explained, reflected incidents where sufficient information had been compiled to warrant documentation, but the overall count is expected to be higher. He added that hundreds of children had been wounded.

"Although 'explosions and shootings have slowed' under the ceasefire, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed journalists at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from the Strip. "So what the international community now terms quiet would be viewed as a crisis anywhere else," he said.

Another Winter of Hardship

Gaza’s population of over 2 million individuals has been fighting to keep the cold weather and bad weather at bay while facing shortages of humanitarian aid and a absence of sturdier transitional shelter, which is badly required during the colder season. It’s the third cold season after the conflict involving the state and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when militants stormed into southern Israel and murdered approximately twelve hundred individuals and took hostage 251 more into Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry reports more than seventy-one thousand four hundred Palestinians have been fatally injured in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.