Harsh Winter Weather Systems Claim Five Victims in the Gaza Strip Amid Dire Living Situations in Makeshift Camps.
Powerful cold-season gusts brought walls down onto fragile tents housing Palestinians uprooted by war in Gaza, killing no fewer than four individuals. These deaths underscores the dangerous living conditions that continue after more than 24 months of intense bombardment and severe shortages of humanitarian assistance.
Ceasefire Provides No Respite from Harsh Elements
Although a truce has been in effect since last fall, humanitarian organizations state that Palestinians broadly lack the sufficient shelter required to withstand frequent cold-weather events.
Officials at Shifa hospital, which took in the bodies, said on Tuesday that the deceased were two women, a young female, and a male adult.
In a separate incident, the Gaza health ministry stated on the same day that a one-year-old boy died of hypothermia during the night.
"International actors has enabled us to witness loss of life in every possible way," stated a family member following the burial. "It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip."
Family Buried in Shelter Collapse
According to Shifa hospital, three people of a one family — elderly a man, his teenage granddaughter, and his son's wife — were killed when an 26-foot tall wall fell onto their dwelling in a area near the sea of the city. At least 5 additional people were injured in the incident.
Family members on that day started clearing the rubble that had entombed their family and rebuilding the tent shelters for those who remained.
Humanitarian Efforts and Ongoing Crisis
United Nations agencies and its humanitarian partners were distributing tents, plastic sheeting, warm covers and clothing as well as nutrition and hygiene supplies across Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.
Most of Palestinians live in improvised tents because their homes were turned into rubble during the war. Humanitarian organizations say not enough shelter materials are entering Gaza during the ceasefire.
Casualty Figures After the Truce
Local health authorities, which is part of the Hamas-run government, says more than 440 people have been killed by Israeli fire and their remains taken to hospitals after the ceasefire went into effect. The ministry keeps comprehensive casualty records that are considered largely accurate by UN agencies and outside analysts.
A spokesperson for UNICEF, representing the UN children’s agency Unicef, stated on that day that at least 100 minors below eighteen years old – 60 boys and 40 girls – had been lost their lives after the ceasefire started because of military operations, such as drone strikes, air raids, artillery fire and use of bullets. These numbers, he explained, reflected cases where sufficient details had been compiled to justify documentation, but the overall count is believed to be greater. He added that many hundreds of children had been injured.
"Although 'bombings and shootings have slowed' under the truce, they have not ceased," the spokesperson informed reporters at a UN briefing in the Swiss city by video link from the Strip. "Therefore what the international community now terms quiet would be viewed as a crisis anywhere else," he said.
Third Winter of Struggle
Gaza’s residents of over two million individuals has been fighting to fend off the freezing temperatures and bad weather away while facing lack of assistance and a lack of more substantial transitional shelter, which is badly required throughout the winter months. This marks the third winter since the conflict involving Israel and Hamas started on 7 October 2023, when fighters stormed into southern Israel and murdered around 1,200 individuals and abducted 251 more into Gaza.
The local health authority reports more than seventy-one thousand four hundred people have been killed in Israel’s military campaign.
