🔗 Share this article

Powerful winter winds brought walls down upon fragile shelters housing Palestinians uprooted by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 individuals. This tragedy highlights the dangerous situation that continue after more than 24 months of devastating bombardment and severe shortages of aid.

Ceasefire Provides No Relief from Severe Weather

Although a ceasefire has been active from last fall, humanitarian organizations report that Palestinians broadly lack the sufficient shelter required to withstand recurring winter storms.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which received the victims, reported on this week that the dead include two women, a young female, and a man.

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

"International actors has enabled us to experience death in every possible way," stated a family member following the funeral. "It’s true 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 Shelter Collapse

According to the medical center, 3 people of a single household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old relative, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an eight-metre tall wall fell onto their dwelling in a area near the sea of Gaza City. At least 5 additional people were hurt in the event.

Their relatives on Tuesday began removing the debris that had entombed their loved ones and rebuilding the temporary homes for survivors.

Aid Distribution and Continuing Emergency

The UN and its humanitarian partners were handing out shelter kits, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothing as well as nutrition and hygiene supplies throughout Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

The majority of Palestinians live in improvised tents since their houses were turned into ruins during the war. Aid groups say an insufficient amount of building supplies are reaching Gaza under the truce.

Casualty Figures Since the Ceasefire

The Gaza health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, reports over four hundred and forty people have been killed by Israeli fire and their bodies brought to hospitals since the truce went into effect. The authority maintains detailed fatality records that are considered generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children’s agency Unicef, stated on that day that at least 100 minors under the age of 18 – sixty males and 40 females – had been lost their lives since the truce started due to military operations, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, tank shelling and employment of live ammunition. These numbers, he explained, represented incidents where sufficient information had been compiled to justify documentation, but the overall count is expected to be higher. He added that hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"While 'explosions and shootings have slowed' during the ceasefire, they have not ceased," Elder informed reporters at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video link from the Strip. "Therefore what the world now calls calm would be considered a catastrophe in any other place," he said.

Third Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of over 2 million individuals has been fighting to fend off the freezing temperatures and storms away while enduring lack of humanitarian aid and a absence of sturdier temporary housing, which is badly required during the winter months. This marks the third cold season after the conflict involving Israel and the group started on 7 October 2023, when fighters stormed into Israeli territory and killed approximately 1,200 individuals and took hostage 251 others into Gaza.

The local health authority says more than 71,400 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.