Sixth Baby Dies

Cold Wave, Rains Worsen Misery of Gazans

Date: 30 December 2024 - 22:12

News ID: ۱۳۵۲۷۱

GAZA (Dispatches) – Cold weather, rainfall and storms are worsening the already tragic living conditions for Palestinian civilians in Gaza City, municipal authorities warned on Monday.
“Displaced civilians are suffering very tragic conditions due to rains and storms and there are no enough capabilities to help them,” Gaza Municipality announced in a statement.
“(The current cold wave) poses a danger to the worn-out tents of the displaced,” it warned.
The authorities said municipal teams are facing major difficulties discharging the rainwater and sewage due to the massive damage caused by Israeli attacks on the sewage discharge network.
The Gaza Municipality appealed to international aid groups to intervene to provide people in Gaza with shelter amid the cold weather.
The Palestinian enclave has been hit by a cold wave and torrential rains since Sunday, bringing more misery to the blockaded territory’s 2.3 million population.
Cold weather in Gaza has claimed the life of a baby, the sixth to die in a week, according to medical sources, as the Zionist regime continues its relentless attacks on hospitals across the strip.
One-month-old Ali al-Batran died on Monday at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, quoting medical sources who attributed his death to plummeting temperatures.
The day before, his twin brother, Jumaa al-Batran, perished from the cold in the displaced family’s flimsy tent in Deir el-Balah, also in the center of the enclave, his father said, describing how Jumaa had been discovered with his head as “cold as ice”.
The babies were born one month prematurely.
Zionist troops have displaced almost all of the 2.3 million residents of Gaza, forcing tens of thousands of them into makeshift tents in open-air camps along the rainy, windswept coast.
Three of the six Palestinian babies who have died of hypothermia in the past week lived in the coastal “safe zone” of al-Mawasi, close to the southern town of Khan Younis.
Gaza’s Government Media Office said on Monday that “bitter cold and frost” hitting “dilapidated tents” in the strip’s camps had killed seven people, including an adult healthcare worker.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported on Monday that 27 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudari said: “You can’t imagine the situation right now. We are all freezing and shaking due to the very cold weather. … Especially those who are in al-Mawasi very close to the beach are suffering from the cold.”
“We’re talking about Palestinians who have been displaced for more than 14 months. They still have the same tent. There [are] no tent tarps. It’s also very expensive to afford any nylon or any equipment or tools to cover your tent and even winter clothes [and] blankets.”