Four babies die from hypothermia in Gaza, as Israel’s war pushes Palestinians into tent camps

By Tareq El Hilou, Eyad Kourdi, Ibrahim Dahman, Abeer Salman and Sana Noor Haq, CNN

(CNN) — A newborn baby died from the cold in a tent encampment in Al-Mawasi, in southern Gaza, a health official said Wednesday, highlighting the stark challenges to survival faced by Palestinian children displaced from their homes amid Israel’s ongoing assault on the strip.

Sela Mahmoud Al-Fasih “froze to death from the extreme cold” in Al-Mawasi, Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, the director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, posted on X on Wednesday.

In the past week, at least four infants have died of hypothermia from low temperatures and a lack of access to warmth while living in tents, Dr. Ahmed Al-Farra, the head of pediatrics and obstetrics at Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, said on Thursday. Among them were a three-day-old and a one-month-old who also died in Al-Mawasi, he said.

Staff in the neonatal ICU see at least five cases of hypothermia per day, added Al-Farra. Reduced breastfeeding and limited availability of infant formula has severely compounded the risk of hypothermia among babies, he told CNN. Meanwhile, health workers are struggling to treat young patients due to shortages of electricity, diesel and other fuel.

“This is one of the disastrous results of this criminal war,” said Al-Farra.

Al-Mawasi, a coastal region west of Rafah, previously designated by Israel as a “humanitarian area,” has repeatedly come under Israeli attacks. Thousands of displaced Palestinians have moved there in search of refuge, living for months in makeshift tents made of cloth and nylon.

CNN footage from a courtyard in Al-Mawasi showed Sela’s small body wrapped in a white shroud, her 31-year-old father, Mahmoud Al-Fasih, holding her. In another shot, a group of young Palestinian men and boys crouch by her grave.

“(Sela) died from the cold,” her mother, Nariman Al-Fasih, told CNN on Wednesday. “I was warming her and holding her. But… (we) didn’t have extra clothes for me to warm this girl.” The video showed the three-week-old baby’s face had turned blue.

Israel’s assault, launched after the Hamas-led October 7 attack, has gutted Gaza’s once-lively neighborhoods, erased entire families, and spawned a humanitarian crisis of starvation, displacement and disease. More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed and 107,000 people injured, the health ministry there reported on Monday.

‘War on children’

Human rights advocates have warned that Palestinian children are bearing the brunt of Israel’s bombardment and siege.

More than 17,600 children have been killed since the war started, Al-Bursh said on Wednesday. One child in Gaza is killed every hour, the chief of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, said on Tuesday, citing UN data.

As many as 17,000 children have been left unaccompanied or separated from their parents and caregivers, the International Rescue Committee reported in October. Others struggle to find enough food, water and warmth, as Israel’s siege has drained supplies.

Children are unable to receive adequate care in the medical system, which has been paralyzed by Israel’s attacks, doctors have told CNN. Just 20% of neonatal care units are operational in the Gaza Strip, according to Al-Farra. Premature babies are dying due to lack of medical supplies including ventilators, while doctors are forced to triage cases to save children’s lives, he said.

The UN’s children’s agency, UNICEF, warned that many displaced children in Gaza are wearing little more than the clothes on their backs – after many were forced to flee Israel’s bombardment in summer clothes, earlier this year.

“For over 14 months, children have been at the sharp edge of this nightmare… In Gaza the reality for over a million children is fear, utter deprivation and unimaginable suffering,” Rosalia Bollen, a UNICEF communications specialist, said in a statement on December 20.

“The war on children in Gaza stands as a stark reminder of our collective responsibility. A generation of children is enduring the brutal violation of their rights and the destruction of their futures.”

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the deaths of the three infants in Al-Mawasi.

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This story has been updated.