Fifth infant dies from cold in Gaza

Just days earlier, four other newborns, aged 4 to 21 days, succumbed to low temperatures

Imam Islam Abu Suaied holds the body of one-month-old Jomaa Al Batran, who died from hypothermia, before his funeral at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza. AP

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A fifth baby has died in Gaza in the space of a week from hypothermia caused by cold weather, medical sources said on Sunday.

Twenty-day-old infant Jomaa Al Batran passed away in a tent in the enclave's central Deir Al Balah, and his twin Ali is deteriorating, medical workers told Palestinian official news agency Wafa. Just days ago, four other newborn babies aged between 4 and 21 days died as a result of low temperatures.

Speaking to journalists, Jomaa's father, Yahia, said the family was displaced several times and the two boys and their parents lived in a tent. They were born on the same month that Israeli attacks killed their uncle and their nephews. "I called one of the boys Jomaa, his martyred uncle, and the other Ali, after one of his martyred cousins," Mr Al Batran said.

The boys were born prematurely at eight months. "The hospital released them looking like red meat. I had no money to buy them clothes, or blankets. Where are the organisations that should be taking care of our children?" he said.

More than 90 per cent of Gaza's population has been displaced in Israel's war on Gaza since October 7 last year, many living in tents or out in the open as temperatures drop to 11ºC at night, without adequate blankets or winter clothing. Meanwhile, strikes on tented encampments and what is left of buildings in the strip continue.

The UN estimates that 14,500 children have been reportedly killed by Israeli strikes and thousands more injured in the 14 months of conflict, sparked by a Hamas attack on southern Israel which killed about 1,200 people and left about 250 more abducted over the border into Gaza.

“These preventable deaths lay bare the desperate and deteriorating conditions facing families and children across Gaza,” Edouard Beigbeder, Unicef Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa said on Friday.

“With temperatures expected to drop further in the coming days, it is tragically foreseeable that more children's lives will be lost to the inhumane conditions they are enduring”.

Also on Sunday, Israeli troops bombed the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza city, one of the two remaining centres in the Gaza governorate, Wafa reported, quoting local sources.

The top floor of the hospital, housing the radiology department, was seen damaged in images circulated by local news outlets.

Al Ahli Arab Hospital was attacked in October last year by Israeli troops, killing 500 civilians at the time.

Sunday's strike comes two days after the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza's north went out of service, following an Israeli siege, bombing and burning of the centre, emptying it of patients and staff members and detaining the hospital's director among 240 others including dozens of wounded and sick people, the Ministry of Health said.

A fire burns outside Kamal Adwan Hospital, during the continuing Israeli military operation in the northern Gaza Strip. Reuters

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it has lost contact with the director Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, adding that with the hospital out of service, more than 75,000 people in Gaza's north have been put at risk.

Seven people were also killed in yet another Israeli strike on Al Wafa Hospital in Gaza city. Thirteen people were killed across the strip on Sunday in Israeli attacks, Wafa reported.

At least 45,484 people have been killed by Israeli troops since October 7 last year, and more than 108,000 others have been wounded. Thousands more are still under rubble or missing, with emergency crews unable to reach them.