🔗 Share this article

Strong winter gusts brought walls down onto flimsy tents housing people displaced by conflict in Gaza, killing at least 4 people. This tragedy underscores the dangerous situation that persist after over 24 months of intense bombardment and severe lack of humanitarian assistance.

Ceasefire Provides Little Respite from Severe Elements

While a truce has been in effect since October, aid groups state that Palestinians do not have the sufficient shelter required to survive frequent winter storms.

Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which took in the victims, reported on this week that the dead include a pair of adult females, a young female, and a male adult.

Separately, the Gaza health ministry announced on the same day that a 12-month-old infant died of hypothermia during the night.

"International actors has enabled us to witness loss of life in every possible way," said Bassel Hamouda following the burial. "While it is correct the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."

Family Buried in Tent Collapse

As per the medical center, three members of a one family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old relative, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an eight-metre high wall fell on top of their dwelling in a area near the sea of the city. No fewer than five additional people were injured in the event.

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

Humanitarian Distribution and Continuing Crisis

United Nations agencies and its aid organization allies were handing out tents, plastic sheeting, blankets and clothing as well as nutrition and hygiene items throughout Gaza, said the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.

Most of the population live in makeshift tents since their houses were reduced to rubble over the course of the war. Aid groups say not enough building supplies are reaching Gaza under the ceasefire.

Fatality Numbers Since the Ceasefire

Local health authorities, part of the Hamas-run government, says more than 440 individuals have been killed by Israeli fire and their bodies brought to hospitals since the truce began. The authority maintains detailed fatality records that are seen as largely accurate by UN agencies and outside analysts.

James Elder, representing the UN children's fund, stated on that day that at least 100 children below eighteen years old – 60 boys and 40 females – had been lost their lives since the truce began because of armed actions, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, artillery fire and use of bullets. Those figures, he said, reflected incidents where enough information had been compiled to justify documentation, but the total toll is believed to be greater. He added that many hundreds of minors had been wounded.

"Although 'explosions and gunfire have slowed' during the ceasefire, they have not stopped," the spokesperson informed reporters at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video link from the Strip. "Therefore what the world now terms calm would be considered a catastrophe anywhere else," he concluded.

Third Winter of Struggle

Gaza’s population of over two million individuals has been fighting to fend off the cold weather and storms away while facing lack of assistance and a lack of sturdier temporary housing, which is urgently needed throughout the winter months. It’s the 3rd cold season after the war between Israel and the group began on 7 October 2023, when fighters attacked southern Israel and killed around twelve hundred people and took hostage 251 others into Gaza.

The local health authority reports more than 71,400 Palestinians have been fatally injured in the subsequent retaliatory offensive.