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A fourth infant died of hypothermia in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by nearly 15 months of war are huddled in tents along the rainy, windy 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, his father Yehia said. The baby’s twin brother, Ali, was transferred to the intensive care unit of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Their father said the twins were born a month premature and spent only one day in the nursery at the hospital, which like other health centers in Gauze is overloaded and only partially functional.
He said doctors told their mother to keep the newborns warm, but that was impossible because they live in a tent and temperatures regularly drop below 10C at night.
“There are eight of us and we only have four blankets,” al-Batran said as he cradled his son’s pale body. He described the dew drops that seeped through the tent cover during the night. “Look at his color because (of) the cold. Do you see how frozen he is?”
The children, some of them barefoot, stood outside and watched him grieve. A wrapped child was laid at the imam’s feet, barely bigger than his shoes. After the prayer, the imam took off his ankle-length coat and wrapped it around his 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 was 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 Palestinian security forces sniper 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 by Palestinian security forces said she was shot by “renegades” – a term they use for local militants fighting Israeli forces. Security forces condemned the shooting and promised to investigate.
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank under Israeli occupation. He is unpopular among Palestinians, mainly because he cooperates with Israel on security issues, although Israel accuses him of encouraging and 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 “a repressive tool that practices terrorism against its own people instead of protecting their dignity and opposing the (Israeli) occupation.”
The militant group Hamas blamed security forces and noted that al-Sabbagh was the sister of one of their fighters who was killed in a battle with Israeli troops last year.
Later on 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 a Hamas attack from Gaza on October 7, 2023 sparked the war there. Israel conquered the West Bank, along with Gaza and East Jerusalem, in the Middle East War of 1967. The Palestinians want all three territories for a future state.
Israeli report details abuse of hostages in Gaza
About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the October 7 attack, and about 250 were kidnapped, including women, children and the elderly. About 100 hostages are still in Gaza, and at least a third are believed to be dead.
Israel’s health ministry released a report late Saturday detailing what it says is widespread physical, psychological and sexual abuse of people who have been 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 captives — 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 the release of hostages with Hamas. Hostage families and supporters have held mass protests for months, and diplomats have reported recent progress in protracted indirect talks.
7 people were killed in an attack on a hospital in the city of Gaza
An Israeli attack on the top floor of Wafa Hospital in Gaza City on Sunday killed at least seven people and wounded several others, according to the Civil Defense, the first outfit affiliated with the Hamas-run government. Israel’s military said it hit a Hamas control center inside the building, which it said no longer serves as a hospital.
And an attack near Nuseirat in central Gaza killed eight and wounded more than 15, according to Al-Awda Hospital officials.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military said militants fired five missiles from northern Gaza into Israel, the second time in two days, adding that two were intercepted and the rest likely landed in open areas. The municipality of Sderot announced that three people were slightly injured on the way to the shelter. Rockets from northern Gaza have been rare in recent months as the Israeli military has stepped up operations there.
The Israeli offensive has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities. They say that women and children account for more than half of the dead, but they do not distinguish between militants and civilians in their numbers. Israel claims to have killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Israeli bombing and ground operations have displaced about 90 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times. Vast areas, including entire neighborhoods, are in ruins and critical infrastructure has been destroyed.
Israeli restrictions, fighting and the breakdown of law and order have prevented the delivery of humanitarian aid, increasing fears of famine, while famine has put people at greater risk of disease and death.
