🔗 Share this article Winter Weather Systems Claim 5 Victims in the Gaza Strip Amid Dire Living Situations in Makeshift Shelters. Powerful winter winds caused walls to collapse upon flimsy tents sheltering Palestinians displaced 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 intense bombardment and severe shortages of aid. Ceasefire Provides No Respite from Harsh Weather Although a truce has been active since October, aid groups state that residents do not have the adequate shelter necessary to survive frequent winter storms. Officials at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which took in the victims, reported on this week that the dead were two women, a girl, and a man. Separately, the local health authority announced on Tuesday that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of hypothermia during the night. "International actors has enabled us to witness death in all its forms," stated Bassel Hamouda after the funeral. "It’s true the shelling may have paused for now, but we have seen every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip." Family Crushed in Shelter Collapse According to Shifa hospital, 3 members of a one family — 72-year-old a man, his 15-year-old relative, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an 26-foot high wall fell onto their dwelling in a coastal area of Gaza City. No fewer than five additional people were hurt in the incident. Their relatives on Tuesday began removing the rubble that had buried their loved ones and reconstructing the tent shelters for survivors. Aid Distribution and Ongoing Emergency The UN and its humanitarian partners were handing out shelter kits, tarps, warm covers and clothes as well as nutrition and sanitation supplies across Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body. Most of the population live in makeshift tents because their houses were reduced to rubble over the course of the war. Aid groups contend not enough building supplies are reaching Gaza during the ceasefire. Casualty Figures After the Truce The Gaza health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, reports more than 440 individuals have been killed by gunfire and their remains brought to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect. The authority keeps comprehensive casualty data that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. A spokesperson for UNICEF, representing the UN children’s agency Unicef, said on that day that at least one hundred minors below eighteen years old – 60 boys and 40 females – had been lost their lives after the ceasefire began due to armed actions, such as drone strikes, airstrikes, artillery fire and use of bullets. These numbers, he explained, reflected cases where enough information had been compiled to justify recording, but the total toll is believed to be higher. He added that many hundreds of minors had been wounded. "While 'explosions and gunfire have slowed' during the truce, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed reporters at a press conference in the Swiss city by video from the Strip. "Therefore what the world now calls calm would be viewed as a crisis in any other place," he concluded. Another Winter of Struggle Gaza’s residents of more than two million individuals has been struggling to keep the cold weather and storms away while enduring lack of assistance and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is urgently needed during the colder season. It’s the 3rd cold season since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began on a date in late 2023, when fighters attacked Israeli territory and killed approximately twelve hundred individuals and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one others into Gaza. Gaza’s health ministry reports over 71,400 Palestinians have been fatally injured in the subsequent military campaign.