Health authorities in Gaza have reported several deaths of newborns from the cold.
Olli-Pekka Sulasma,
Susanna Bono
Health authorities in Gaza have reported the death of at least four newborn children from hypothermia. The UN children’s organization Unicef says that in addition to Israel’s attacks, children are now dying from the cold and lack of adequate protection.
– These preventable deaths reveal the desperate and worsening situation in which families and children in Gaza live, says Unicef’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Edouard Beigbeder in its announcement.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa already reported on the funeral held on Christmas Day, where a baby girl who died of cold was buried. On Friday, it also reported the death of a nurse from hypothermia in Khan Younis.
You can get an idea of the winter conditions in the video of this article, which was filmed by the UN in Nuseirat, located in the central part of Gaza.
There, Gaza’s internal refugees live next to the dump in rickety tents with little protection from the winter wind and cold.
By Mahmoud Al-Daqas the family collects plastic from the landfill to create a heating and cooking fire. The rain comes through the tent.
– I was awake with the children at night and we collected water in containers from the tent. The youngest was shaking from the cold and we didn’t know what to do, Mahmoud Al-Daqas tells the UN film crew.
In the same camp, Hassan Abu Amra shares a tent with 15 family members and two distant relatives.
– My children are dying of cold and no one cares, Hassan Abu Amra says.
An important hospital out of the game
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Kamal Adwan Hospital has ceased operations following the Israeli military operation targeting it on Friday morning.
On Friday, Israeli forces launched a raid on one of the only operating hospitals in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan in Beit Lahia.
– According to preliminary reports, some central departments were badly burned and destroyed during the attack, the World Health Organization WHO says in the message service X.
According to the AFP news agency, the Israeli military claimed in a statement that the hospital has become “a key base for terrorist organizations and continues to be used as a terrorist hideout” after Israel stepped up its operations in northern Gaza in early October.
Israel has detained the hospital’s management and staff for questioning.
According to the WHO, there were reportedly still 60 healthcare workers and 25 patients in a critical condition in the hospital, some of whom are on ventilators.
Patients in moderate to serious condition had to be evacuated to a destroyed and disabled Indonesian hospital, the UN health organization said, adding that it was deeply concerned for the patients’ safety.
AFP, Reuters