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Strong winter winds caused walls to collapse onto fragile tents sheltering Palestinians uprooted by war in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than 4 individuals. This tragedy highlights the perilous situation that continue after over two years of devastating airstrikes and critical lack of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Offers Little Relief from Harsh Elements

Although a ceasefire has been in effect from October, aid groups report that Palestinians broadly lack the sufficient housing required to survive frequent winter storms.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the victims, reported on this week that the dead were 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 died of extreme cold during the night.

"The world has allowed us to experience loss of life in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda after the funeral. "While it is correct the shelling may have paused for now, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Relatives Buried in Shelter Collapse

As per the medical center, three members of a one household — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage relative, and his son's wife — were fatally injured when an 26-foot high wall fell on top of their tent in a area near the sea of the city. No fewer than five others were hurt in the incident.

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

Humanitarian Efforts and Continuing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were handing out tents, tarps, blankets and clothing as well as nutrition and hygiene items across Gaza, stated the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of the population live in makeshift shelters because their houses were reduced to rubble over the course of the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations contend an insufficient amount of shelter materials are reaching Gaza under the ceasefire.

Fatality Figures Since the Ceasefire

The Gaza health ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, reports over four hundred and forty individuals have been killed by gunfire and their bodies brought to hospitals after the ceasefire began. The authority maintains comprehensive fatality records that are seen as generally reliable by international bodies and outside analysts.

A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, stated on that day that at least one hundred children under the age of 18 – 60 boys and 40 females – had been lost their lives since the truce began due to armed actions, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, artillery fire and employment of live ammunition. These numbers, he said, reflected incidents where sufficient details had been compiled to warrant documentation, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He added that hundreds of children had been injured.

"While 'explosions and shootings have decreased' under the truce, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed journalists at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the international community now calls calm would be viewed as a catastrophe anywhere else," he said.

Third Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s population of more than two million people has been struggling to fend off the cold weather and bad weather at bay while facing lack of humanitarian aid and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is urgently required throughout the winter months. It’s the 3rd cold season after the conflict between the state and the group began on a date in late 2023, when fighters stormed into Israeli territory and killed approximately 1,200 people and took hostage 251 more into Gaza.

The local health authority reports over seventy-one thousand four hundred Palestinians have been fatally injured in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.