At least four babies have died of hypothermia in recent weeks in the Gaza Stripwhere hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by nearly 15 months of war are huddled in tents on the wet, windy coast as winter approaches.
Jomaa al-Batran, 20 days old, was found with his head “cold as ice” when his parents woke up on Sunday, said his father, Yehia. The child's twin brother, Ali, was transferred to the intensive care unit of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
The father said the twins were born one month premature and spent just one day in the hospital's nursery, which like other health centers in Gaza has been exceeded and is only partially functional.
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
He said that medics asked the mother to keep the newborn baby warm, but it was impossible because they live in a tent and the temperature regularly drops below 10 degrees. Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) at night. Death from hypothermia can occur at a temperature between 30 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
“There are eight of us, and we only have four blankets,” al-Batran said as he shook his son's pale body. He mentioned dew drops seeping through the tent cover overnight. “Look at his color because it's cold. Do you see how frozen he is?”
Children, some of them barefoot, stood outside and watched the mourning. The foolish child was placed at the imam's feet, almost bigger than his shoes. After prayers, the imam took off his ankle length coat and wrapped it around the father.
“A warm feeling, brother,” he said.
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
Dr. Fidda Al-Nadi, a doctor at Nasser Hospital, told CBS News that they admit one or two cases of hypothermia every day. The youngest, Al-Nadi said, are the most vulnerable.
“In the pressure we live in, many children are born prematurely, and this makes them more prone to hypothermia,” said Al-Nadi.
Mahmoud al-Faseeh buried his daughter Sila last week – she died of hypothermia at just 3 weeks old.
“I went to wake her up to breastfeed and she was frozen and blue, she was bleeding from her nose,” he told the Associated Press. “Her heart had stopped from the intensity of the cold.”
Israel launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip after declaring war on Hamas following the deadly attacks by the group's terrorists on October 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people.
Israeli bombing and ground attacks on Gaza have killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.
The offense caused widespread destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
Aid groups have been struggling to deliver food and supplies and say there is a shortage of blankets, warm clothes and fuel.
Elsewhere, an Israeli strike on the top floor of a hospital in Gaza City on Sunday killed at least seven people and wounded several others, according to the Civil Defense, the first responders linked to the Hamas-run government. . The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas control center inside the building, which it said was no longer serving as a hospital.
And a strike near Nuseirat in central Gaza killed eight people and wounded more than 15, according to officials at Al-Awda Hospital.
At the same time, the Israeli military said that terrorists launched five projectiles from northern Gaza into Israel, the second time in two days, adding that two were captured and fell the rest in open areas. Rockets from northern Gaza had been rare in recent months as the Israeli military increased operations there.
contributed to this report.
