At least three newborn babies have died from hypothermia in the Israel-besieged Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported Thursday.
It said that babies were aged between 3 and 21 days amid repeated warnings from aid organizations about the harsh conditions facing displaced families in Gaza during the winter months.
The 3-week-old Sila was the third to die from the cold in Gaza's tent camps in recent days, doctors said, deaths that underscore the squalid conditions, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crammed into often ramshackle tents after fleeing Israeli attacks.
Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has killed over 45,300 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the territory's Health Ministry.
It has also caused widespread destruction and displaced some 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are packed into tent camps along the coast as the cold, wet winter sets in.
Aid groups have struggled to deliver food and supplies and say there are shortages of blankets, warm clothing and firewood.
The father of Sila, Mahmoud al-Faseeh, wrapped her in a blanket to try and keep her warm in their tent in the Muwasi area outside the town of Khan Younis, but it wasn't enough, he told The Associated Press.
He said the tent was not sealed from the wind and the ground was cold, as temperatures Tuesday night dropped to 9 degrees Celsius (48 degrees Fahrenheit.) Muwasi is a desolate area of dunes and farmland on Gaza's Mediterranean coast.
"It was very cold overnight and as adults we couldn't even take it. We couldn't stay warm," he said. Sila woke up crying three times overnight and in the morning they found her unresponsive, her body stiff.
"She was like wood," said al-Faseeh. They rushed her to a field hospital where doctors tried to revive her, but her lungs had already deteriorated. Images of Sila taken by the AP showed the little girl with purple lips, her pale skin blotchy.
Ahmed al-Farra, director of the children's ward at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, confirmed that the baby died of hypothermia. He said two other babies – one 3 days old, the other a month old – had been brought to the hospital over the past 48 hours after dying of hypothermia.
