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A fourth baby has died of hypothermia in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by nearly 15 months of war live in tents along the rainy, windswept coast as winter approaches.
Jomaa al-Batran, 20 days old, was found with his head as “cold as ice” when his parents woke up on Sunday, said his father, Yehia. The baby’s twin brother, Ali, was moved to the intensive care unit of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Her father said the twins were born a month premature and spent only a day in the nursery at the hospital, which like other health centers in Gaza is overwhelmed and only partially works.
He said medics told their mother to keep the newborns warm, but it was impossible because they live in a tent and temperatures regularly drop below 10 C at night.
“We are eight people, and we only have four blankets,” al-Batran said as he cradled his son’s pale body. He described drops of dew seeping through the tent deck at night. “Look at his color because (of) the cold. Do you see how frozen he is?”
Children, some of them barefoot, stood outside and watched him mourn. The shrouded child was laid at the feet of an imam, barely bigger than his shoe. After the prayer, the imam took off his ankle-length coat and wrapped it around the father.
“Feel warm, my brother,” he said.
At least three other babies have died from the cold in recent weeks, according to local health officials.
A Palestinian woman is killed at home in the West Bank
A Palestinian woman was shot and killed in her home in the volatile West Bank city 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 with the Palestinian security forces late Saturday while she was with her mother and two children. They said there were no militants in the area at the time.
A statement from the Palestinian security forces said she was shot by “outlaws” – the term it uses for local militants fighting Israeli forces. The security forces condemned the shooting and promised to investigate.
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It is unpopular among Palestinians, largely because it cooperates with Israel on security matters, even as Israel accuses it of incitement and of generally turning a blind eye to militancy.
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In a statement, the al-Sabbagh family accused the Palestinian security forces of becoming “repressive tools that practice terrorism against their own people instead of protecting their dignity and standing up against the (Israeli) occupation.”
The militant group Hamas blamed the security forces and noted that al-Sabbagh was the sister of one of its fighters who was killed fighting with Israeli forces last year.
Later Sunday, hundreds of people demonstrated in Jenin in support of the Palestinian security forces, organized by the Fatah party that dominates the Palestinian Authority.
Violence has flared in the West Bank since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack from Gaza triggered the war there. Israel conquered the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the Mideast war of 1967. The Palestinians want all three areas for a future state.
Israeli report describes abuse of hostages in Gaza
The October 7 attack killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250, including women, children and elderly adults. About 100 hostages are still in Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead.
Israel’s Ministry of Health released a report late Saturday detailing what it said was widespread physical, psychological and sexual abuse of people detained in Gaza.
The report, based on the findings of doctors who treated some of the more than 100 hostages released during a ceasefire last year, said the detainees – including children – were subjected to “severe physical and sexual abuse such as beatings, isolation, deprivation of food and water, branding, hair pulling and sexual assault.”
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 hostage situation with Hamas. Families of hostages and supporters have held mass demonstrations for months, and diplomats have reported recent progress in the long-running indirect talks.
In a strike on a hospital in Gaza City, 7 people died
An Israeli strike on an upper floor of the Wafa hospital in Gaza City on Sunday killed at least seven people and wounded several others, according to the Civil Defense, first responders affiliated with the Hamas-run government. The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas control center in the building, which it said no longer served as a hospital.
And a strike near Nuseirat in central Gaza killed eight and injured more than 15, according to Al-Awda hospital officials.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military said militants launched five projectiles from northern Gaza into Israel, the second time in two days, adding that two were intercepted and the rest likely fell in open areas. The municipality of Sderot said that three people were slightly injured on their way to shelters. Rockets from northern Gaza had been rare in recent months as Israel’s military operations there increased.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. They say women and children make up more than half of the dead, but do not distinguish between militants and civilians in their count. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Israel’s bombing and ground operations have displaced about 90 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Large areas, including entire neighborhoods, are in ruins, and critical infrastructure is destroyed.
Israeli restrictions, fighting and the breakdown of law and order have hampered the delivery of humanitarian aid, raising fears of famine, while hunger puts people at greater risk of disease and death.
