Powerful cold-season winds caused walls to collapse upon flimsy tents housing Palestinians uprooted by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than 4 people. This tragedy highlights the dangerous living conditions that persist after over 24 months of devastating airstrikes and severe lack of humanitarian assistance.
Ceasefire Offers Little Respite from Harsh Weather
Although a ceasefire has been active from last fall, aid groups state that residents broadly lack the adequate shelter necessary to withstand recurring winter storms.
Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the bodies, said on Tuesday that the deceased were two women, a girl, and a man.
In a separate incident, the Gaza health ministry stated on the same day that a one-year-old boy died of extreme cold during the night.
"The world has allowed us to experience death in all its forms," said a family member after the burial. "It’s true the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed all imaginable reasons of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."
Family Buried in Shelter Collapse
According to the medical center, three members of a one family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage relative, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an eight-metre high wall fell onto their tent in a coastal area of the city. At least 5 others were injured in the event.
Family members on Tuesday began clearing the rubble that had buried their family and reconstructing the tent shelters for those who remained.
Aid Distribution and Continuing Crisis
The UN and its aid organization allies were handing out shelter kits, tarps, warm covers and clothing as well as nutrition and hygiene items throughout Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.
The majority of Palestinians live in makeshift tents since their homes were turned into ruins during the hostilities. Aid groups say an insufficient amount of building supplies are reaching Gaza during the truce.
Casualty Numbers Since the Ceasefire
Local health authorities, which is part of the Hamas-run government, reports over 440 people have been fatally shot by gunfire and their bodies brought to hospitals since the truce began. The authority maintains detailed fatality data that are considered generally reliable by international bodies and independent experts.
A spokesperson for UNICEF, representing the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on Tuesday that at least 100 children below eighteen years old – 60 males and forty females – had been lost their lives after the truce started due to armed actions, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, tank shelling and use of live ammunition. These numbers, he said, reflected incidents where sufficient details had been gathered to warrant recording, but the total toll is believed to be greater. He added that many hundreds of children had been wounded.
"Although 'explosions and gunfire have decreased' during the truce, they have not stopped," the spokesperson informed reporters at a press conference in Geneva by video link from the Strip. "Therefore what the international community now terms calm would be considered a catastrophe anywhere else," he said.
Another Winter of Struggle
Gaza’s population of over two million people has been fighting to keep the freezing temperatures and bad weather at bay while facing shortages of assistance and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is urgently needed during the winter months. This marks the third cold season since the war involving the state and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when militants stormed into Israeli territory and killed around 1,200 people and abducted 251 more into Gaza.
The local health authority says over seventy-one thousand four hundred people have been fatally injured in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.