At least four infants have died of hypothermia in recent weeks in the Gaza Stripwhere hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by nearly 15 months of war are crowded into tents along the rainy, windswept coast as winter sets in.
Jomaa al-Batran, 20 days old, was found with his head “cold as ice” when his parents woke up on Sunday, his father, Yehia, said. The baby’s twin brother, Ali, was transferred to the intensive care unit of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Their father said the twins were born a month premature and spent only a day in the hospital nursery, which like other health centers in Gaza has been overwhelmed and is only partially functioning.
Abdel Karim Hana / AP
He said doctors told their mother to keep the newborns warm, but that was impossible because they live in a tent and temperatures regularly drop below 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) at night. . Deaths from hypothermia can occur at temperatures between 30 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
“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 canvas of the tent during the night. “Look at its color from the cold. Do you see how frozen it is?
Children, some barefoot, stood outside and watched him cry. The child wrapped in a shroud was placed at the feet of an imam, barely bigger than his shoes. After the prayer, the imam took off his coat down to his ankles and wrapped it around the father.
“Be warm, brother,” he said.
Abdel Karim 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 stress we live in, many children are born prematurely, which further predisposes them to hypothermia,” Al-Nadi said.
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, her nose was bleeding,” he told the Associated Press. “His heart had stopped because of the intensity of the cold.”
Israel launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip after declaring war on Hamas following deadly attacks by the group’s militants on October 7, 2023, which killed some 1,200 people.
Israel’s bombings and ground invasion of Gaza have killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. in his count.
The offensive caused widespread destruction and displaced some 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, often multiple times.
Aid groups are struggling to deliver food and supplies and say there is a shortage of blankets, warm clothing and firewood.
Elsewhere, an Israeli strike on the upper floor of a hospital in Gaza City on Sunday killed at least seven people and injured several others, according to Civil Defense, first responders affiliated with the Hamas-led government. The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas control center inside the building, which it said was no longer being used as a hospital.
And a strike near Nuseirat in central Gaza killed eight people and injured more than 15, according to officials at Al-Awda Hospital.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said militants launched five projectiles from northern Gaza toward Israel, the second time in two days, adding that two were intercepted and the others likely fell in open areas. Rocket fire from northern Gaza has been rare in recent months as the Israeli army has stepped up operations in the area.
contributed to this report.