Gazan newborns freeze to death amid bitter winter, lack of shelter

With teary eyes, Yahia al-Batran, a displaced Palestinian from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, was staring at the body of his newborn son Ali, who died on Monday, reported Xinhua.

The 21-day-old infant lost his life due to the lack of warmth in his family's temporary tent during the winter. The baby's death came just two days after his twin brother, Jomaa, succumbed to the freezing cold.

"In just a few days, I lost my twin babies due to the severe cold. I could not provide warmth for them, or even for my remaining children," 31-year-old al-Batran told Xinhua.

"My two children died one after the other in front of my eyes, and I couldn't even be able to protect them," the grieving father said while holding his child's thin clothes in his hands.

"We fled the (Israeli) bombing in Gaza, but death refused to do anything but pursue me and kidnap my children," he said.

Amid the ongoing Israeli attacks on the enclave, al-Batran now has to squeeze with his eight-member family into a dilapidated tent, lacking necessities. And the winter is making things more difficult for them, as they have only four blankets to cope with the coldness.

On Monday, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said in a statement that the number of Palestinians who died because of the severe cold waves has risen to seven, and that "the number is likely to increase due to the tragic circumstance."

"Heavy rains are expected to continue, as well as the continuation of frost waves and winter coldness in the coming days, which poses a great danger to the lives of the displaced who are suffering tragically as a result of the crimes of the Israeli occupation against them," it said.

In southern Gaza's Khan Younis, 30-year-old Mahmoud Al-Fasih is mourning the loss of his three-week-old daughter, Sila, who froze to death a few days ago.

"My wife woke me up at night, while worry and fear dominated her to tell me that Sila was not well. Her face was pale and nearly blue, and she was shaking violently," Al-Fasih recalled.

The couple tried to warm their little girl, with Al-Fasih's wife breastfeeding her several times and Al-Fasih holding her against his chest to share his body heat. As soon as the sun rose the next day, Al-Fasih rushed to Nasser Hospital with his daughter, but by the time he arrived, she had passed away on the way, he recalled.

Now, Al-Fasih fears for the health of his other children, who are holding onto life inside the family's shabby tent without any necessities.

Ayed al-Farra, director of the neonatal unit at Nasser Hospital, said the hospital receives five to six cases of hypothermia in newborns every day. "The main reason for this is that the tents are unsuitable for the harsh cold, becoming freezing at night during the winter," al-Farra told Xinhua.

"Gaza babies are freezing to death due to cold weather and lack of shelter," Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East Philippe Lazzarini said Friday on social media platform X.

"Meanwhile, blankets, mattresses, and other winter supplies have been stuck in the region for months waiting for approval to get into Gaza," he said, calling for ceasefire and an immediate flow of much-needed basic supplies.