A 20-day-old baby in Gaza has died from severe cold, the fifth such fatality from hypothermia in six days in the Israeli-besieged Palestinian enclave.
Jumaa al-Batran died on Sunday while his twin brother, Ali, remains in intensive care at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Jumaa’s father, Yahya al-Batran, said his son was found with his head as “cold as ice” when he woke up on Sunday.
He said the twins were born one month prematurely and spent just a day in the nursery at the hospital in Deir el-Balah, which like other health centres in Gaza has been overwhelmed and is only partially functioning due to relentless Israeli bombings.
He said doctors told their mother to keep the newborns warm but it was impossible because they live in a tent and temperatures regularly drop below 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) at night.
“We are eight people, and we only have four blankets,” al-Batran said as he cradled his son’s pale body. He described drops of dew seeping through the tent cover overnight.
“Look at his colour because of the cold. Do you see how frozen he is?” said al-Batran, whose family has sought shelter inside a tattered tent in the city of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
“There is no electricity. The water is cold, and there is no gas, heating or food. … My children are dying in front of my eyes, and nobody cares. Jumaa has died, and I fear his brother Ali may follow.”
Children, some of them barefoot, stood outdoors and watched Yahya mourn. The shrouded infant was laid at the feet of an imam, barely larger than his shoes. After prayers, the imam took off his ankle-length coat and wrapped it around the father.
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said the area where the al-Batran family was sheltering is “very close to the sea and very windy”.
“There are no tarps or tents, and Jumaa’s father was unable to give his children basic necessities,” she said. “Not only are Palestinian babies and children dying from air attacks and artillery but also from malnutrition and hypothermia.”
Israeli forces have displaced nearly the entire 2.3 million residents of Gaza, forcing tens of thousands of them to huddle in unsuitable tents along the rainy, windswept coast in southern Gaza.
Three of the five Palestinian babies who froze to death in less than a week lived in the “humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi.
Marwan al-Hamas, head of field hospitals in Gaza, confirmed Jumaa’s death, saying it brought to five the number of children “who have died due to severe cold” in recent days.
Ahmed Alfarra, a doctor at Al Tahreer Maternity Hospital in Khan Younis, said he sees an average of five to six cases of hypothermia among babies every day.
“I visited the tents where these infants are living, and I saw the condition. It is miserable,” Alfaraa told Al Jazeera.
Since the war began in October last year, Gaza’s residents have endured severe shortages of electricity, drinking water, food and medical services as they have been forced out of their homes and displaced – many repeatedly.
The Israeli genocide in Gaza has killed at least 45,484 Palestinians and wounded 108,090. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Source: AlJazeera