Harsh Winter Storms Take Five Victims in Gaza Amid Dire Living Situations in Temporary Camps.
Strong cold-season gusts caused walls to collapse onto flimsy tents sheltering Palestinians displaced by conflict in Gaza, claiming the lives of at least 4 people. These deaths highlights the dangerous living conditions that persist after more than 24 months of devastating airstrikes and critical shortages of humanitarian assistance.
Ceasefire Offers Little Relief from Severe Elements
While a ceasefire has been in effect from October, humanitarian organizations report that Palestinians do not have the adequate shelter necessary to survive recurring cold-weather events.
Medical staff at Gaza City's largest medical facility, which received the victims, said on this week that the deceased include two women, a girl, and a man.
In a separate incident, the local health authority announced on Tuesday that a one-year-old boy died of hypothermia overnight.
"The world has allowed us to experience loss of life in every possible way," stated Bassel Hamouda after the funeral. "It’s true the shelling may have temporarily stopped, but we have seen every conceivable cause of fatality in the world in the Gaza Strip."
Family Crushed in Shelter Collapse
As per the medical center, three members of a single family — elderly a man, his teenage relative, and his son's wife — were killed when an eight-metre high wall collapsed onto their tent in a coastal area of Gaza City. At least 5 others were injured in the event.
Family members on that day started clearing the debris that had entombed their family and rebuilding the tent shelters for survivors.
Aid Distribution and Continuing Emergency
The UN and its aid organization allies were distributing shelter kits, tarps, blankets and clothing as well as food and hygiene supplies throughout Gaza, said the relevant UN coordination body.
The majority of Palestinians live in makeshift shelters since their houses were reduced to ruins over the course of the war. Aid groups say not enough building supplies are entering Gaza under the truce.
Casualty Numbers Since the Ceasefire
Local health authorities, part of the administration, says more than four hundred and forty people have been killed by Israeli fire and their remains taken to hospitals after the ceasefire went into effect. The authority maintains detailed casualty data that are considered generally reliable by international bodies and independent experts.
James Elder, spokesperson for the UN children's fund, said on Tuesday that at least one hundred minors under the age of 18 – 60 males and forty girls – had been killed after the ceasefire began because of armed actions, including unmanned aerial vehicle attacks, airstrikes, tank shelling and employment of bullets. These numbers, he said, reflected incidents where enough details had been compiled to justify documentation, but the total toll is believed to be greater. He noted that many hundreds of children had been injured.
"While 'bombings and shootings have decreased' during the ceasefire, they have not stopped," Elder informed journalists at a press conference in the Swiss city by video link from Gaza City. "Therefore what the world now calls quiet would be considered a catastrophe anywhere else," he concluded.
Another Cold Season of Hardship
Gaza’s population of over 2 million people has been fighting to fend off the cold weather and bad weather away while enduring lack of assistance and a lack of sturdier temporary housing, which is urgently required throughout the colder season. This marks the 3rd winter after the conflict involving the state and Hamas started on a date in late 2023, when militants attacked southern Israel and murdered around 1,200 people and abducted 251 others into Gaza.
The local health authority reports more than 71,400 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign.