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Full screen members of the Abed family try to warm up in the al-Mawasi tent camp in the southern Gaza Strip. Picture taken on Monday. Photo: Jehad Alshrafi/AP/TT
Six infants have been frozen to death in the Gaza Strip over the past week, says the civil defense in the Hamas -controlled area.
Five of them were one month old or younger.
The deaths are explained by severe cold in combination with a comprehensive lack of warming in the war -torn Gaza. Another several people are being cared for for hypothermia, says doctors.
With a cold front that has swept over the eastern Mediterranean in recent days, the temperature has fallen to the zero line.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still live in tents and in temporary, substandard housing, despite the fact that more emergency assistance arrived in Gaza with the ongoing ceasefire. Many live in the ruins of their bombed houses with few ways to protect themselves from the cold.
According to Gaza’s health department, a total of 15 people have died from hypothermia, that is, severe cooling, so far during the winter months.
Terror -stamped Hamas accuses Israel of blocking the importation of humanitarian assistance and urges the mediators to require increased auxiliary supplies.
“It is vital to protect Gaza’s children,” the Palestinian extremist group announces.