4th baby dies of winter cold in Gaza as families share blankets in seaside tents – Milli
A fourth baby has died of hypothermia in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by nearly 15 months of war huddle in tents along the rainy, windy coast as winter approaches.
Her father Yehia said 20-day-old Jomaa al-Batra’s head was found “ice cold” when her parents woke up on Sunday. The baby’s twin brother, Ali, was placed in the intensive care unit of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Their father said the twins were born a month premature and spent just one day in the hospital’s nursery, like other health centers. Gaza downloaded and only partially working.
According to him, the health workers instructed the mothers to warm the newborn babies, but this was not possible because they lived in a tent and the temperature regularly dropped below 10 degrees at night.
“There are eight of us and we only have four blankets,” al-Batran said as he hugged his son’s pale body. He described the dewdrops seeping through the tent cover overnight. “Look at its color from the cold. Do you see how frozen he is?’
Children, some of them barefoot, stood outside watching her mourn. They put the shrouded baby at the imam’s feet, it was a little bigger than a shoe. After the prayer, the imam took off his ankle-length coat and wrapped it around the father’s head.
“Feel the heat, brother,” he said.
At least three more babies have died from the cold in recent weeks, local health officials said.
A Palestinian woman was killed at home in the West Bank
A Palestinian woman was shot dead in her home in the volatile West Bank town of Jenin, where the Palestinian Authority launched a rare campaign against militants this month.
The family of Shatha al-Sabbagh, a 22-year-old journalism student, said she was killed by a sniper by Palestinian security forces on Saturday evening, along with her mother and two children. They said that there were no armed men in the area at that time.
Palestinian security forces said in a statement that he was shot down by “outlaws” – a term used for local militants fighting Israeli forces. Security forces have condemned the shooting and vowed to investigate.
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It is unpopular with Palestinians because it cooperates with Israel on security issues, even as Israel accuses it of incitement and generally condoning militancy.
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In a statement, the Al-Sabbagh family accused the Palestinian security forces of “turning into a repressive tool that perpetrates terror against its own people instead of protecting its dignity and resisting (Israel’s) occupation.”
The militant group Hamas blamed the security forces, noting that Al-Sabbagh was the sister of one of its fighters who was killed in fighting with Israeli soldiers last year.
On Sunday, hundreds of people demonstrated in the city of Jenin in support of the Palestinian security forces organized by the Palestinian Authority’s dominant Fatah party.
Violence flared in the West Bank after a Hamas offensive from Gaza on October 7, 2023 sparked a war there. Israel captured the West Bank along with Gaza and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. The Palestinians want all three territories for a future state.
Israeli report details hostage abuse in Gaza
About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the attack on October 7, and about 250 people, including women, children and the elderly, were abducted. About 100 hostages are still in Gaza, at least a third are believed to be dead.
Israel’s health ministry released a report late Saturday evening detailing widespread physical, psychological and sexual abuse of detainees in Gaza.
The report, based on the findings of doctors who treated some of the more than 100 hostages released during the ceasefire last year, said the captives, including children, were subjected to “severe physical and sexual abuse, including beatings, isolation, and deprivation of food.” and water, branding, hair pulling and sexual harassment”.
The findings, which will be sent to the United Nations, could increase pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire and the release of hostages with Hamas. Families and supporters of the hostages have held mass demonstrations for months, and diplomats have reported on the latest progress in long-running indirect talks.
7 people died as a result of an attack on a hospital in Gaza City
At least seven people were killed and several others injured in an airstrike on the top floor of the Wafa hospital in Gaza City on Sunday, according to the Civil Defense, the first responder affiliated with the Hamas-run government. A Hamas control center inside the building, which is said to no longer function as a hospital, was struck, according to the Israeli military.
Al-Awda Hospital officials said eight people were killed and more than 15 injured in a strike near Nuseirat in central Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said that for the second time in two days, the militants fired five projectiles at Israel from the north of Gaza, two of them were intercepted, and the rest fell into open areas. The municipality of Sderot said that 3 people who went to shelters were slightly injured. Rockets from northern Gaza have been rare in recent months as the Israeli military has stepped up operations there.
According to local health authorities, more than 45,000 Palestinians died as a result of the Israeli attack. They say more than half of the dead are women and children, but they do not distinguish between militants and civilians. Israel claims to have killed more than 17,000 militants without providing evidence.
Israeli bombing and ground operations have displaced nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Large areas, including entire neighborhoods, were devastated and important infrastructure was destroyed.
Israeli restrictions, fighting, and unrest have hampered the delivery of humanitarian aid, increased fears of famine, and famine has put people at greater risk of illness and death.
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