By Quds News Network
Gaza (Quds News Network)- Another Palestinian baby died Sunday from the extreme cold in Gaza, marking the eighth infant to freeze to death in recent nights, as the ongoing Israeli siege worsens the harsh winter conditions, making life uninhabitable.
Yousef Kaloub died of hypothermia in the so-called “humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, according to local sources.
“I am the mother of Yousef. I lost him. They didn’t give a single moment to feel happy with my baby,” the infant’s mother says in a video.
“He died because of the very cold weather. He slept next to me and in the morning I found him frozen and dead. I don’t know what to say,” she said.
“No one can feel my misery. No one in the world can understand our catastrophic situation. Yousef was fine. He was born healthy … I lost Yousef forever.”
His grieving father, seen at the hospital morgue, has lost two children to hypothermia this winter.
Seven Palestinian babies froze to death in the past few nights in Gaza in December, including three who died of hypothermia in al-Mawasi and twins from the al-Batran family, a displaced family from Beit Lahiya.
“There are no tents or shelters. May God hold accountable everyone who caused this catastrophe.. what was his fault for dying from the cold and freezing?” the twins’ father asks in one clip.
Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, said he has warned for months that “more than a million Palestinians lack shelter” for winter conditions.
“Now babies are freezing to death,” Rajagopal added, noting that this is another “achievement” of Israel’s so-called “most moral army in the world”.
Palestinian nurse Ahmed al-Zaharneh, who was among the crews working at the European Gaza Hospital, also died the same month because of “extreme” weather conditions, according to the Health Ministry.
The Ministry said, “His body was found inside his tent in al-Mawasi area, west of the city of Khan Younis, southern Gaza.”
“This incident comes in light of the difficult humanitarian conditions that displaced citizens are experiencing, as the suffering of Gaza residents increases due to low temperatures and the lack of heating means in tents,” the Ministry added.
The deaths highlight the dire conditions in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are crammed into makeshift tents, fleeing Israeli shelling from various parts of the strip.
Gaza’s Government Media Office stated that 110,000 out of 135,000 tents used by displaced Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip are now out of service and have “completely deteriorated”.
The Office accused the Israeli military of “causing a tragic humanitarian crisis” that is once again putting the lives of thousands of civilians at risk as the freezing winter sets in.
“This catastrophic humanitarian situation is a direct result of the genocide committed by the ‘Israeli’ occupation army, which has completely destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes of these citizens, forcing them to resort to living in tents that lack the minimum requirements for a decent life,” the statement said.
6 January 2025
Source: countercurrents.org