In a heartbreaking incident in squalid refugee tents of Gaza, a three-week-old baby died of hypothermia, the third in recent days, as temperatures dropped to 9 degrees Celsius (48 degrees Fahrenheit).
The incident happened in a tent camp for Palestinians displaced by war in the Muwasi area outside the town of Khan Younis, reported Associated Press. Baby Sila's father Mahmoud al-Faseeh said he wrapped her in a blanket in a bit to keep her warm but she succumbed to extreme cold inside the tent which was not sealed from the wind. The ground was also cold.
Al-Faseeh said it was so cold overnight that even adults couldn't take it. He added that his daughter woke up crying three times overnight. In the morning they found her unresponsive, her body stiff. "She was like wood," said Al-Faseeh. Though the family rushed her to a field hospital where doctors tried to revive her, her lungs had already deteriorated. Images showed the baby with purple lips, her pale skin blotchy.
“This is no life. No matter how much you talk about the suffering, you can’t truly describe it.”
— MSF International (@MSF) December 24, 2024
As winter sets in throughout the Gaza Strip, people face rain and cold temperatures in tents. pic.twitter.com/armEqwobU4
Ahmed Al-Farra, director of the children’s ward at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, told AP that Sila died of hypothermia. Two other babies too succumbed to extreme cold in recent days. One was three days old and the other a month old, the doctor added.
These deaths put the spotlight on the squalid conditions in the tents where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live crammed into. Diseases, including polio, are making a comeback to Gaza after 25 years when a 10-month-old baby was afflicted with paralysis last August. Between June and October, Doctors Without Borders treated nearly 11,000 children between the ages of one and five in emergency rooms for upper respiratory infections.
The situation is such that aid groups still struggle to deliver food and other essential items, despite Israel increasing the amount of aid it allows into the territory. As per reports, an average of 130 trucks reached Gaza this month, up from around 70 a day in October and November. Even then, the number is nowhere near what is necessary.
The offensive has caused widespread destruction and displaced some 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people.
