Dr. Ahmed Al Farra, the head pediatrician at a hospital in southern Gaza, shared that three babies lost their lives this week due to “severe temperature drops.” The Palestinian region, already suffering from war, is now facing harsh winter conditions.
Dr. Al Farra, from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, explained that the most recent case involved a three-week-old baby girl. “She was brought to the emergency room with a severe temperature drop, which caused her death,” he said.
Two other heartbreaking cases occurred earlier. “On Tuesday, we lost a three-day-old baby and another who was less than a month old. Both succumbed to severe cold,” Dr. Al Farra explained. He emphasized that displaced families living in tents are especially vulnerable.
“The tents do not shield from the cold, and nighttime temperatures drop significantly, leaving no way to keep warm,” Dr. Al Farra added. This poses a significant risk to newborns, especially since malnutrition among mothers reduces the quality of their breast milk.
The three-week-old baby girl, Sila Al Faseeh, lived in Al Mawasi tent city near Khan Younis. Her father, Mahmoud Al Faseeh, described her final hours: “She woke up two or three times at night to breastfeed. In the morning, we found she had bitten her tongue and was bleeding.”
The father explained that they rushed her to a doctor, who attributed her symptoms to the freezing conditions. “It’s extremely cold, and the tent is unlivable. The children are constantly falling ill,” he said.
Most of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced multiple times since the war began on October 7, 2023, following the Hamas attack on Israel. Nighttime temperatures in Gaza recently dropped as low as eight degrees Celsius, according to Israel’s weather service.
