Eight children in Gaza tragically succumb to hypothermia
Date
1/15/2025 7:21:48 AM
(MENAFN) From early December 2024 to early January 2025, eight children in Gaza tragically succumbed to hypothermia, with their body temperatures dropping to life-threatening levels due to extreme cold. The last to die, Youssef, passed away while sleeping next to his mother, who later described finding him frozen in the morning. The freezing temperatures, coupled with a lack of shelter, blankets, and warm bedding, left many vulnerable infants exposed to the deadly cold. Youssef's mother expressed her grief to Al Jazeera, saying, “No one can feel my sadness. No one in the world can understand our catastrophic situation.” The Batran family, living in a blue plastic tent in Deir al-Balah, is another example of this tragedy. Their house had been destroyed, and they had received no aid. The twin brothers, Ali and Juma, born amidst the deadly bombing in November 2024, both died from hypothermia, one after the other. The father recalled feeling Juma's head, which was "cold as ice."
By early January 2025, UN and Palestinian government reports revealed that 92% of housing units in Gaza had been destroyed, and many people, particularly in northern Gaza, were left homeless, forced to live in makeshift tents. With no hospitals open, babies were being born in these tents without any medical care. Dr. Rick Peppercorn of the World Health Organization stated that Gaza's health sector was being "systematically dismantled." In areas like Mawasi, near Khan Yunis, three children died of hypothermia, despite being in so-called "safe zones." Mahmoud al-Faseeh, father of 3-year-old Sila, who died from the cold, described how the family slept on the sand in their tent without enough blankets to keep warm. This story is repeated across Gaza, where freezing temperatures, constant rain, and inadequate shelter have led to the deaths of the most vulnerable.
Sadly, this suffering is not unique to Gaza. Similar tragedies have occurred in other war zones. In Kabul's Shaman al-Barrak slum in 2012, Afghan children died from the cold, their names forgotten by all except their families. In northern Idlib, Syria, families who had moved from camp to camp for years lost children to freezing temperatures, while others perished in fires caused by dangerous heating methods. Wars on civilians have turned conflict zones into places where entire populations, particularly women and children, are subjected to brutal conditions. In 2023, the UN reported at least 33,443 civilian deaths in conflict, with a disturbing increase in the number of women and children killed. The Palestinian territories, where the conflict has reached its deadliest, accounted for seven out of every ten civilian deaths in these conflicts.
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