DayofPal– A baby called Yousef has succumbed to the freezing temperatures in his family’s makeshift tent on Sunday, becoming the eighth child in Gaza to die from hypothermia as temperatures plummet these days along with the lack of necessary supplies.
The infant’s mother told Al Jazeera: “I am the mother of Yousef. I lost him. They didn’t give me a single moment to feel happy with my baby. He died because of the very cold weather. He slept next to me, and in the morning, I found him frozen and dead. I don’t know what to say.”
On December 31, 2024, Ali Al-Batran, one month old, died of hypothermia in Al-Aqsa hospital just a day after his twin brother Jumaa suffered the same fate in a tent in Deir Al-Balah.
Ali’s father shared the devastating conditions his family of eight endures, saying they have only four blankets to shield themselves from the bitter winter. Having survived Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza that claimed the lives of his siblings, in-laws, and nieces and nephews, the father had mourned the loss of his youngest children to the unrelenting cold.
On December 27, 2024 Palestinian nurse Ahmed Al-Zaharneh, who worked at the European Gaza Hospital, was found frozen to death in his tent in Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis, amid extreme weather, according to the Health Ministry.
Four additional infants also died from hypothermia in southern Gaza in December. One, a three-week-old girl, died overnight in an uninsulated tent with a cold, damp ground.
Another infant, Sila Mahmoud Al-Faseeh, was found unresponsive on Thursday. Her lungs had deteriorated by the time doctors reached her, and she was pronounced dead from hypothermia.
Dr. Munir Al-Bursh of Gaza’s Health Ministry described the makeshift shelters as “death fridges” on X, citing the loss of two more babies due to the freezing conditions.
Dr. Ahmed Al-Farra, head of pediatrics at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, reported that the victims also included a three-day-old and a one-month-old infant.
Gaza Government Media Office reported in a statement that over 110,000 of the 135,000 tents housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza are severely damaged or entirely unusable, leaving families vulnerable. The statement condemned the Israeli military for causing a humanitarian disaster by destroying hundreds of thousands of homes, forcing people into unsafe and inadequate shelters.
“This catastrophic situation is a direct result of the genocide committed by the Israeli occupation forces, which have left these citizens with no choice but to live in tents unfit for even the most basic survival,” the statement read.
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