Gaza babies dying from the cold as winter temperatures drop

Sila was less than three weeks old when Nariman’s mother noticed that he was not walking.

“I woke up in the morning and told my husband that the child had not moved for some time. He uncovered his face and found that he was blue, biting his tongue, blood coming out of his mouth,” said Nariman al-Najmeh.

In their tent on the beach in southern Gaza, Nariman sits with her husband, Mahmoud Fasih, and their two young children – Rayan, who is four, and Nihad, who is two and a half.

The family is said to have been displaced more than 10 times during the 14-month war.

“My husband is a fisherman, we are from the north and we left with nothing but we did it for our children,” said Nariman in an interview with a freelance photographer working with the BBC. Israel prohibits international media from entering and working freely in Gaza.

“When I was pregnant, I thought about how I would find clothes for the baby. I was very worried because my husband has no job.”

During the 20 days of his life, Sila’s home was a small and overcrowded camp in al-Mawasi “humanitarian area”, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who had fled from elsewhere in the area were ordered to move by the Israeli army.

The area is facing infrastructure and sanitation problems, as well as flooding caused by the rain and the currents of the Mediterranean Sea.

“The cold is painful and dangerous. All night long, because of the cold, we hug each other, we hold each other,” says Sila’s father, Mahmoud.

“Our life is hell. It is hell because of the results of the war, my family was killed, and our situation is unbearable.”

Despite telling civilians to go to the area, the Israeli army has repeatedly hit al-Mawasi during clashes with Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza.

Silas’ death was not caused by the bombs – but it was still caused by the punishment that war inflicts on civilians.

It is one of six newborns who have died of hypothermia in two weeks in Gaza – where nighttime temperatures have dropped to 7C (45F) – according to health officials, who also said thousands of tents had collapsed. it has been damaged by the weather.

Nariman says Sila was born in a British hospital set up in Khan Younis area.

“After I gave birth … I started thinking about how to protect her milk, diapers. Everything I found, I found with great difficulty.”

“I never thought that I would give birth in a tent, in such a cold and cold place, with water dripping on us. because of the child,” says Nariman.

However, Silas was born without problems.

“His health was good, I thank God. Suddenly, he started feeling cold,” says Nariman. “I saw that he was sneezing and seemed to be sick from the cold, but I did not expect him to die from this.”

Sila was admitted last Wednesday at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, where Dr Ahmad al-Farra, head of the pediatric department, said that he suffered from “severe hypothermia, which led to the loss of vital signs, cardiac arrest, and finally death”.

“[On the previous day] Also, two cases were brought: one was a three-day-old baby and the other was less than a month old. Both cases involved severe hypothermia, which resulted in death,” says Dr Farra.

Babies have an irregular way of maintaining their body temperature and can easily develop hypothermia in cold environments. Premature babies are at high risk, and Dr Farra says doctors in Gaza have seen an increase in premature births during the war.

Mothers also suffer from malnutrition, which leaves them unable to adequately breastfeed their children. There is also a shortage of breast milk due to limited provision of services, according to Dr Farra.

Then on Sunday, another problem, sad.

Outside the al-Aqsa hospital in the central Gaza Strip, a second local photographer working for the BBC met Yehia al-Batran, who could not contain her grief as she carried her dead son, Jumaa. Like Silas, he was only 20 days old and was blue from the cold.

“Touch your hand, it’s cold,” said Yehia. “All eight of us, we don’t have four blankets between us. What can I do? I see my children dying in front of me.”

“These preventable deaths highlight the hardships and difficulties faced by the families and children of Gaza,” Unicef ​​chief Edouard Beigbeder said in a statement on Thursday.

“With the temperature expected to drop significantly in the coming days, it is sad that many children’s lives will be lost because of the bad behavior they are enduring.”

Under the sound of Israeli drones flying ahead, Sila’s father Mahmoud carried his lifeless body from Nasser Hospital to a makeshift cemetery in Khan Younis. There, they dug a small grave in the sand.

After Sila was laid to rest, Mahmoud comforted Nariman.

“His brothers are sick, they are tired. We are all sick. Our chests hurt, and we are cold because of the cold and the rain,” says Nariman. “If we don’t die of war, we die of cold.”