Harsh Winter Storms Take 5 Lives in Gaza Amid Dire Living Situations in Makeshift Camps.

Powerful cold-season gusts caused walls to collapse onto flimsy shelters sheltering Palestinians uprooted by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of at least four people. This tragedy underscores the dangerous living conditions that persist after over 24 months of devastating bombardment and severe lack of humanitarian assistance.

Truce Offers Little Relief from Severe Weather

Although a ceasefire has been in effect from October, aid groups report that residents do not have the adequate housing necessary to withstand frequent winter storms.

Officials at Shifa hospital, which took in the bodies, said on Tuesday that the deceased include a pair of adult females, a young female, and a man.

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

"The world has enabled us to witness death in every possible way," stated a family member after the funeral. "It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed all imaginable reasons of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Crushed in Shelter Collapse

As per Shifa hospital, three members of a single household — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his teenage granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an eight-metre tall wall fell onto their tent in a area near the sea of Gaza City. At least five others were hurt in the incident.

Family members on that day started clearing the rubble that had entombed their family and rebuilding the temporary homes for those who remained.

Humanitarian Efforts and Continuing Emergency

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were distributing shelter kits, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothing as well as food and sanitation items across Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.

The majority of Palestinians live in makeshift shelters because their homes were reduced to rubble over the course of the war. Humanitarian organizations say not enough building supplies are reaching Gaza under the ceasefire.

Casualty Numbers After the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, which is part of the Hamas-run government, reports over 440 people have been fatally shot by Israeli fire and their remains taken to hospitals after the truce went into effect. The ministry maintains detailed fatality data that are seen as generally reliable by international bodies and outside analysts.

James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, stated on Tuesday that at least 100 children under the age of 18 – 60 males and forty girls – had been killed since the truce began due to armed actions, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, tank shelling and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he said, reflected cases where sufficient details had been compiled to warrant recording, but the total toll is believed to be higher. He noted that hundreds of children had been injured.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have slowed' during the ceasefire, they have not stopped," Elder informed journalists at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video from the Strip. "So what the international community now terms quiet would be considered a crisis anywhere else," he concluded.

Another Winter of Hardship

Gaza’s residents of more than two million people has been fighting to keep the cold weather and storms at bay while facing lack of humanitarian aid and a lack of sturdier transitional shelter, which is badly needed during the colder season. It’s the 3rd winter after the conflict between Israel and Hamas began on 7 October 2023, when militants attacked southern Israel and murdered around twelve hundred people and took hostage 251 others into Gaza.

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