During the last nine months of the Gaza war, Nora al-Batran was pregnant with twins. The 38-year-old, along with her husband and children, were repeatedly displaced as they dodged bombs and gunfire and sought shelter in a tent in the city of Deir al Balah.
On December 6, al-Batran gave birth to twin sons, Juma and Ali, at the city's Al-Aqsa Hospital.
Two weeks later, however, Jumaa died of hypothermia as the frost set in, and al-Batran struggled to keep her children warm under the canvas tarp of her tent at night.
“Because of the cold, my babies stopped moving and breastfeeding,” she told CBC freelance cameraman Mohamed El Saif. “It's very difficult…. It's very cold.”
Cold and heavy rains have lashed much of the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, leaving many Palestinians living in tents at risk from the elements, with one of them digging a hole under his tent to provide shelter for his family.
According to Dr Ahmed al Farra of Nasser Medical Complex, Jumaa was one of eight children who died in recent weeks from hypothermia.
During the second winter of the Gaza war, the weather added an additional element of suffering to hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Jumaa al-Batran was born on December 6 along with his twin brother, but due to difficult weather conditions in Gaza, Jumaa did not survive the hypothermia attack.
At this time of year, the temperature in Gaza drops to around 10-15°C at night.
AND report published in January by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said children were dying of hypothermia due to lack of access to basic supplies that did not reach civilians in Gaza across the border.
“Supplies that would protect them have been stuck in the region for months, waiting for permission from Israeli authorities to enter Gaza,” we read.
Infants are at greater risk of hypothermia because they lose heat faster than adults. Many people had to spend many hours indoors in a wet and cold room due to the weather in Gaza, which can lead to hypothermia, According to health care workers.
Sitting in the tent, with her son Ali in her arms, al-Batran remembers the day she found Jumaa's lifeless body next to her.
She said that the previous evening she had wrapped Jumaa in as many blankets as she could find, leaving only his nose exposed so he could breathe, and placed a bottle of hot water under his blankets in an attempt to warm him.
“I woke up at 6 a.m. and found my son blue and cold. He wasn't breathing,” al-Batan said. “I felt guilty that my baby died in front of me from the cold and I couldn't do anything for him.”
Tayseer Obeid says he hopes the 1.5-meter-deep hole dug under the tent will protect his children from the cold, but it cannot protect them from the war.
All eight babies who died were less than a month old, said al Farra, head of the pediatrics department at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza.
“The situation is very critical and very serious. (Newborns) cannot protect themselves from severe hypothermia because they are delicate babies,” El Saifie said.
Infants are more susceptible to hypothermia
Al Farra said these children are already susceptible to hypothermia even if they live in heated buildings, “so what happens when they are in a tent without furniture, electricity and fuel for heating?”
Al Farra said he sees four to five cases of hypothermia in children every day at Nasser Hospital.
While the hospital does what it can to warm the babies and advises parents on how to keep them warm, he said some, like Jumaa, arrive already dead.
Al-Batran is one of hundreds of mothers who are trying to survive the winter with their family. She said her older children sleep glued together, using body heat to keep warm, while she focuses on month-old Ali.
“The nights are very cold, people are living in makeshift tents, every time it's too windy it rains in the tents,” Amanda Bazerolle, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, told CBC News.
Bazerolle said many displaced people stayed in Rafah last winter, where buildings still stand and people can find shelter.
“Today, most of the population is sheltering in tents or makeshift tents, so they are much more at risk and much more exposed to the elements,” Bazerolle said.
In a post to XIsrael's official entity tasked with coordinating humanitarian initiatives, COGAT, said it was working with partners to “facilitate the delivery of essential supplies and winter equipment to Gaza.” The post went on to say that 8,400 tons of winter items had arrived in the Gaza Strip over the past three months, “including heating equipment, blankets, coats and clothing.”
Shelter from the cold
In Khan Younis, a concerned father tries to protect his children from the cold by going underground.
Tayseer Obeid dug a two-meter-wide and 1.5-meter-deep hole under his tent to provide shelter for his 10 children from the bad weather.
The pits, which he said people call “grave pits,” are lined with plastic tarps to prevent sand from falling on the family.
He built shelves for the family's meager belongings and stairs out of sand so that children could get in and out more easily.
He built two tents on the ground in which he could accommodate his family. Both only have plastic tarps to cover them. In the middle of all this, he made two swings for his children to play on. He said it took him 60 days to dig the hole.
“It was an everyday occurrence for me. Everyday life that is difficult and exhausting,” said El Saifie. “The earth is hard and resistant, and there were days when we were just tired.”
Back in Deir al Balah, al-Batran holds his surviving son Ali in his arms.
A one-month-old boy wrapped in many blankets after his last visit to the intensive care unit of Al-Aqsa hospital with symptoms of hypothermia.
With few options, the mother relied on hot water bottles that she placed under his blankets to keep the baby warm. But these only last for a short time before they cool down.
She said she fled the war in northern Gaza and faced destruction, cold and famine in central Gaza.
“How can someone live like this?” she said. “How to keep your baby warm?”