At least four babies have died of hypothermia in recent weeks Gaza Stripwhere hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the nearly 15-month war huddle in tents along the rainy windswept coast as winter approaches.
Jomaa al-Batran, 20 days old, was found with a “cold as ice” head when his parents woke up on Sunday, his father Yehia said. The child'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 early and spent just one day in the nursery at the hospital, which like other medical centers in Gaza has been overloaded and is only partially functional.
Abdel Karim Khan / AP
He said medics told their mothers to keep the newborns warm, but that was impossible because they live in a tent and the nighttime temperature regularly drops below 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit). Death from hypothermia may occur at a temperature of 30 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
“There are eight of us and we only have four blankets,” al-Batran said, cradling his son's pale body. He described the drops of dew that seeped through the tent cover during the night. “Look at its color because it's cold. Can you see how frozen it is?”
Children, some of them barefoot, stood outside and watched him grieve. At the imam's feet they laid a swaddled baby barely bigger than his shoes. After the prayer, the imam took off his coat to his ankles and wrapped it around his father.
– Keep warm, my brother, – he said.
Abdel Karim Khan / AP
Dr. Fida Al-Nadi, a doctor at Nasser Hospital, told CBS News that they receive one or two cases of hypothermia every day. The youngest, Al-Nadi said, are the most vulnerable.
“In the stressful environment we live in, many babies are born prematurely, and that makes them more prone to hypothermia,” Al-Nadi said.
Last week, Mahmoud al-Fasi buried his daughter Silah, who died of hypothermia at the age of just 3 weeks.
“I went to wake her up to breastfeed and she was frozen and blue and bleeding from her nose,” he told The Associated Press. “Her heart stopped because of the extreme cold.”
Israel launched its offensive on the Gaza Strip after declaring war on Hamas following deadly attacks by the group's militants on October 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the bombing and ground invasion of Gaza, more than half of them women and children.
Offensive caused widespread destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million residents, often multiple times.
Aid groups are struggling to deliver food and supplies and say blankets, warm clothes and firewood are in short supply.
Elsewhere on Sunday, an Israeli strike on the top floor of a hospital in Gaza City killed at least seven people and wounded several others, according to Civil Defense, the first response service linked to the Hamas government. The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas command center in a building it said no longer serves as a hospital.
And as a result of the strike near Nuseirat in the central part of Gaza, eight people were killed and more than 15 were injured, according to representatives of Al-Awda Hospital.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said militants fired five projectiles from northern Gaza into Israel, the second in two days, adding that two were intercepted and the rest likely fell in open areas. Rockets from northern Gaza have been rare in recent months as the Israeli military has increased operations there.
contributed to this report.