🔗 Share this article Winter Storms Take 5 Lives in the Gaza Strip Amid Dire Living Situations in Makeshift Camps. Powerful cold-season winds caused walls to collapse upon fragile shelters sheltering Palestinians uprooted by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of no fewer than 4 people. This tragedy underscores the dangerous situation that persist after over two years of intense bombardment and severe shortages of aid. Ceasefire Offers Little Respite from Severe Weather While a ceasefire has been active from last fall, aid groups state that residents broadly lack the adequate housing necessary to survive frequent cold-weather events. Officials at Shifa hospital, which took in the bodies, said on Tuesday that the deceased include two women, a young female, and a man. Separately, the local health authority stated on Tuesday that a 12-month-old infant succumbed of hypothermia overnight. "The world has enabled us to witness death in all its forms," said Bassel Hamouda after the burial. "It’s true the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip." Family Buried in Tent Collapse According to the medical center, three members of a one household — elderly a man, his teenage granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an eight-metre tall wall fell on top of their dwelling in a area near the sea of the city. At least five additional people were hurt in the incident. Family members on that day began removing the rubble that had buried their family and reconstructing the temporary homes for survivors. Aid Distribution and Continuing Emergency The UN and its humanitarian partners were distributing tents, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothes as well as food and sanitation items throughout Gaza, stated the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs. Most of Palestinians live in makeshift tents since their homes were turned into ruins over the course of the war. Aid groups contend not enough shelter materials are entering Gaza during the ceasefire. Fatality Figures After the Ceasefire The Gaza health ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, says more than four hundred and forty individuals have been killed by Israeli fire and their bodies brought to hospitals after the ceasefire began. The authority keeps comprehensive fatality records that are considered generally reliable by UN agencies and outside analysts. A spokesperson for UNICEF, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, stated on Tuesday that at least one hundred minors below eighteen years old – sixty boys and 40 girls – had been killed since the ceasefire began because of armed actions, such as unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, air raids, artillery fire and employment of live ammunition. These numbers, he explained, reflected cases where enough information had been gathered to warrant documentation, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He noted that many hundreds of children had been injured. "While 'bombings and gunfire have slowed' during the ceasefire, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed reporters at a UN briefing in Geneva by video from Gaza City. "Therefore what the world now calls calm would be viewed as a catastrophe anywhere else," he concluded. Another Winter of Struggle Gaza’s residents of more than two million individuals has been fighting to fend off the freezing temperatures and storms at bay while enduring lack of assistance and a lack of more substantial transitional shelter, which is badly needed throughout the winter months. This marks the 3rd cold season since the conflict involving the state and the group started on a date in late 2023, when militants stormed into southern Israel and killed around 1,200 individuals and took hostage two hundred and fifty-one more into Gaza. Gaza’s health ministry reports more than seventy-one thousand four hundred Palestinians have been fatally injured in Israel’s military campaign.