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Strong winter gusts caused walls to collapse onto fragile shelters sheltering Palestinians uprooted by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than 4 individuals. These deaths highlights the perilous situation that continue after over 24 months of intense bombardment and severe shortages of aid.

Truce Offers No Respite from Harsh Elements

Although a ceasefire has been active from last fall, humanitarian organizations report that Palestinians broadly lack the adequate shelter necessary to withstand frequent cold-weather events.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which received the bodies, said on this week that the dead include two women, a girl, and a man.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry announced on Tuesday that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of hypothermia overnight.

"International actors has allowed us to experience loss of life in all its forms," said a family member after the burial. "While it is correct the shelling may have paused for now, but we have witnessed all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Buried in Tent Collapse

According to the medical center, 3 people of a single household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his son's wife — were killed when an eight-metre tall wall collapsed on top of their tent in a area near the sea of the city. At least 5 others were hurt in the event.

Family members on Tuesday began clearing the rubble that had buried their loved ones and reconstructing the temporary homes for those who remained.

Aid Efforts and Continuing Emergency

The UN and its humanitarian partners were handing out shelter kits, tarps, warm covers and clothing as well as food and sanitation items throughout Gaza, stated the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of Palestinians live in makeshift tents because their homes were reduced to rubble over the course of the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations contend not enough building supplies are reaching Gaza under the truce.

Casualty Figures Since the Truce

The Gaza health ministry, part of the administration, reports more than 440 individuals have been fatally shot by gunfire and their remains brought to hospitals since the ceasefire began. The authority keeps comprehensive casualty records that are considered generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, stated on that day that at least one hundred minors below eighteen years old – 60 boys and 40 girls – had been lost their lives after the ceasefire started because of armed actions, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, tank shelling and employment of bullets. These numbers, he explained, reflected cases where sufficient details had been compiled to warrant recording, but the overall count is expected to be greater. He added that hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have decreased' under the truce, they have not stopped," the spokesperson informed journalists at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from the Strip. "So what the world now terms calm would be viewed as a catastrophe in any other place," he concluded.

Third Cold Season of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of over 2 million individuals has been fighting to fend off the freezing temperatures and bad weather away while facing lack of humanitarian aid and a absence of sturdier transitional shelter, which is badly required throughout the colder season. It’s the third winter since the war between the state and Hamas began on a date in late 2023, when fighters attacked southern Israel and killed around 1,200 individuals and took hostage 251 others into Gaza.

The local health authority says more than 71,400 people have been killed in the subsequent military campaign.