Cold, siege, and silence: How Gaza’s children are being left to die

Local officials say another Palestinian infant in the Gaza Strip has died from hypothermia, as the Zionist regime continues to limit the entry of shelter materials and other humanitarian aid into the besieged area despite the harsh winter conditions.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health announced that the two-week-old infant died after being taken to a doctor for treatment of severe hypothermia caused by Gaza’s extreme cold.

Reporting from Gaza City, an Al Jazeera correspondent stressed that the child’s death comes as basic support systems in Gaza have been systematically destroyed due to the Zionist regime’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the area.

He said families are living in tents pitched on wet ground without heating, electricity, or adequate clothing. “When food, fuel, shelter, and aid are banned, the cold becomes outright lethal.”

The occupying regime’s two-year war has destroyed more than 80 percent of structures across Gaza, forcing hundreds of thousands of families to seek refuge in flimsy tents or overcrowded temporary shelters.

A massive storm that recently swept across the Gaza Strip has killed at least 11 people; torrential rains and strong winds flooded tents and caused already-damaged buildings to collapse.

A displaced Palestinian mother from Gaza City said: “We try to dry the children’s clothes over a fire. There are no spare clothes for them. I am exhausted. The tent we were given is not resistant to winter conditions. We need blankets.”

Human rights groups have called on the Zionist regime to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.

However, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which the United Nations says is the best option for distributing supplies in the area, says the Zionist regime has blocked the direct entry of aid into Gaza.

In a social media post, UNRWA said: “According to reports, people have died due to the collapse of damaged buildings where families had taken shelter. Children have also died from the cold. This must stop. Aid must enter now at scale.”

The United Nations has issued a stark warning that about half of Gaza’s displaced population is at high risk of flooding.

UN analysis indicates that around 850,000 displaced people living in more than 760 locations are in areas vulnerable to flooding after just a few days of heavy rain.

According to reports from Gaza hospitals, several children and infants have died in recent days from hypothermia.

In a separate incident, 14 people were killed when walls and war-damaged buildings collapsed during storms onto nearby tents. Local officials report that at least 13 buildings collapsed due to the storm and heavy rainfall.

The scale of destruction and living conditions were already dire. The mayor of Khan Younis in southern Gaza said that more than 300,000 tents have either been completely flooded, partially inundated, or torn apart by storms. This destruction has left a large portion of the displaced population without even basic shelter against the cold and rain.