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Strong winter winds caused walls to collapse upon flimsy shelters sheltering people uprooted by conflict in Gaza, killing no fewer than 4 people. These deaths underscores the dangerous living conditions that continue after more than two years of devastating bombardment and critical shortages of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Offers No Relief from Harsh Elements

Although a ceasefire has been in effect from October, humanitarian organizations state that Palestinians broadly lack the adequate shelter required to survive recurring winter storms.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the victims, said on this week that the dead were two women, a girl, and a man.

In a separate incident, the Gaza health ministry announced on Tuesday that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of extreme cold overnight.

"The world has enabled us to experience loss of life in every possible way," stated Bassel Hamouda after the burial. "It’s true the shelling may have paused for now, but we have seen every conceivable cause 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 — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an 26-foot tall wall fell on top of their dwelling in a area near the sea of the city. At least 5 additional people were injured in the incident.

Family members on Tuesday started removing the rubble that had entombed their family and reconstructing the tent shelters for survivors.

Aid Distribution and Continuing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were distributing tents, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothes as well as nutrition and sanitation supplies across Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of the population live in makeshift tents because their houses were turned into ruins over the course of the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations say an insufficient amount of shelter materials are entering Gaza under the truce.

Fatality Figures Since the Ceasefire

The Gaza health ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, says more than 440 individuals have been killed by Israeli fire and their remains taken to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect. The ministry keeps comprehensive casualty records that are seen as largely accurate by international bodies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children's fund, stated on Tuesday that no fewer than one hundred minors under the age of 18 – sixty boys and 40 females – had been lost their lives after the truce started due to armed actions, such as drone strikes, air raids, artillery fire and use of bullets. These numbers, he said, reflected incidents where enough information had been compiled to warrant documentation, but the overall count is expected to be greater. He noted that many hundreds of minors had been injured.

"Although 'bombings and gunfire have slowed' under the ceasefire, they have not ceased," Elder informed reporters at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the international community now terms calm would be viewed as a catastrophe anywhere else," he said.

Another Cold Season of Struggle

Gaza’s residents of over 2 million individuals has been struggling to fend off the cold weather and storms at bay while facing shortages of humanitarian aid and a lack of more substantial transitional shelter, which is badly needed during the winter months. It’s the 3rd cold season since the war involving the state and the group began on 7 October 2023, when militants stormed into Israeli territory and murdered around twelve hundred people and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.

The local health authority reports over seventy-one thousand four hundred people have been fatally injured in the subsequent military campaign.