{"id":4263,"date":"2024-12-30T06:22:52","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T06:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raqeeb.ps\/en\/?p=4263"},"modified":"2024-12-30T06:22:52","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T06:22:52","slug":"twenty-day-old-baby-dies-of-cold-in-gaza-fifth-such-fatality-this-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/raqeeb.ps\/en\/4263.html","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-day-old baby dies of cold in Gaza, fifth such fatality this winter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A 20-day-old baby in Gaza has died from severe cold, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/12\/26\/israel-kills-five-medical-staff-as-another-baby-freezes-to-death-in-gaza\">fifth such fatality<\/a>\u00a0from hypothermia in six days in the Israeli-besieged Palestinian enclave.<\/p>\n<p>Jumaa al-Batran died on Sunday while his twin brother, Ali, remains in intensive care at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, Gaza\u2019s Ministry of Health said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Jumaa\u2019s father, Yahya al-Batran, said his son was found with his head as \u201ccold as ice\u201d when he woke up on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3413241\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3413241\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-arc-image-770 wp-image-3413241\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/AP24364424160338-1735485764.jpg?w=770&amp;resize=770%2C513&amp;quality=80\" alt=\"Gaza baby\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3413241\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are eight people, and we only have four blankets,\u201d al-Batran said as he cradled his son\u2019s pale body. He described drops of dew seeping through the tent cover overnight.<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-newsletter-slot\">\n<div class=\"sib-newsletter-form general-style\" aria-label=\"Newsletter signup Widget\">\n<div class=\"sib-form-container\">\n<div class=\"sib-container--large sib-container--horizontal\">\n<p>\u201cLook at his colour because of the cold. Do you see how frozen he is?\u201d said al-Batran, whose family has sought shelter inside a tattered tent in the city of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no electricity. The water is cold, and there is no gas, heating or food. \u2026 My children are dying in front of my eyes, and nobody cares. Jumaa has died, and I fear his brother Ali may follow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3413246\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3413246\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-arc-image-770 wp-image-3413246\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/AP24364414647153-1735485895.jpg?w=770&amp;resize=770%2C513&amp;quality=80\" alt=\"Gaza baby\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3413246\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Imam Islam Abu Suaied prays over the bodies of Jumaa and another baby who died at birth at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah [Abdel Kareem Hana\/AP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Al Jazeera\u2019s Hind Khoudary said the area where the al-Batran family was sheltering is \u201cvery close to the sea and very windy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are no tarps or tents, and Jumaa\u2019s father was unable to give his children basic necessities,\u201d she said. \u201cNot only are Palestinian babies and children dying from air attacks and artillery but also from malnutrition and hypothermia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Three of the five Palestinian babies who froze to death in less than a week lived in the \u201chumanitarian zone\u201d in al-Mawasi.<\/p>\n<p>Marwan al-Hamas, head of field hospitals in Gaza, confirmed Jumaa\u2019s death, saying it brought to five the number of children \u201cwho have died due to severe cold\u201d in recent days.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI visited the tents where these infants are living, and I saw the condition. It is miserable,\u201d Alfaraa told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n<p>Since the war began in October last year, Gaza\u2019s residents have endured severe shortages of electricity, drinking water, food and medical services as they have been forced out of their homes and displaced \u2013 many repeatedly.<\/p>\n<p>The Israeli\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/tag\/israel-palestine-conflict\/\">genocide in Gaza<\/a>\u00a0has 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.<\/p>\n<p>Source: AlJazeera<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 20-day-old baby in Gaza has died from severe cold, the\u00a0fifth such fatality\u00a0from 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\u2019s Ministry of Health said in a statement. Jumaa\u2019s father, Yahya al-Batran, said his son<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-children-of-gaza"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/raqeeb.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/raqeeb.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/raqeeb.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raqeeb.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raqeeb.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/raqeeb.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4265,"href":"https:\/\/raqeeb.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263\/revisions\/4265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raqeeb.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/raqeeb.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raqeeb.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raqeeb.ps\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}