Strong winter gusts caused walls to collapse upon flimsy shelters sheltering people uprooted by war in Gaza, killing at least 4 people. This tragedy highlights the perilous living conditions that continue after more than 24 months of devastating airstrikes and critical lack of aid.
Although a ceasefire has been active since October, humanitarian organizations state that Palestinians do not have the sufficient housing necessary to withstand frequent winter storms.
Medical staff at Shifa hospital, which received the victims, reported on this week that the dead were two women, a girl, and a male adult.
In a separate incident, the local health authority announced on the same day that a one-year-old boy died of extreme cold during the night.
"The world has enabled us to experience death in all its forms," stated a family member following the burial. "While it is correct the shelling may have paused for now, but we have seen all imaginable reasons of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."
According to the medical center, 3 people of a single family — elderly Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were fatally injured when an eight-metre tall wall collapsed onto their tent in a coastal area of the city. At least five others were hurt in the incident.
Family members on that day began removing the rubble that had buried their loved ones and rebuilding the temporary homes for survivors.
The UN and its aid organization allies were distributing tents, tarps, warm covers and clothing as well as food and sanitation supplies across Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs.
Most of Palestinians reside in makeshift shelters because their houses were reduced to ruins during the hostilities. Humanitarian organizations say an insufficient amount of building supplies are entering Gaza during the ceasefire.
Local health authorities, which is part of the administration, reports over 440 individuals have been fatally shot by Israeli fire and their bodies brought to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect. The authority keeps detailed casualty records that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and outside analysts.
James Elder, representing the UN children's fund, stated on Tuesday that no fewer than 100 minors under the age of 18 – 60 boys and forty females – had been killed after the truce started because of armed actions, such as drone strikes, air raids, tank shelling and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he explained, represented incidents where sufficient details had been compiled to justify recording, but the overall count is expected to be higher. He added that many hundreds of children had been injured.
"Although 'explosions and shootings have slowed' under the ceasefire, they have not ceased," Elder informed reporters at a UN briefing in Geneva by video link from Gaza City. "Therefore what the world now terms quiet would be viewed as a crisis anywhere else," he concluded.
Gaza’s residents of over two million people has been fighting to fend off the cold weather and bad weather away while facing lack of humanitarian aid and a absence of more substantial temporary housing, which is urgently needed during the winter months. This marks the third cold season after the war between Israel and the group began on a date in late 2023, when militants stormed into Israeli territory and murdered approximately 1,200 individuals and abducted two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza.
Gaza’s health ministry says more than 71,400 people have been killed in the subsequent military campaign.
