Sixth baby dies from severe cold in Gaza as Israel raids hospitals 

Cold weather in Gaza has claimed the life of a baby, the sixth to die in a week, according to medical sources, as Israel continues its relentless attacks on hospitals across the strip.

One-month-old Ali al-Batran died on Monday at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, quoting medical sources who attributed his death to plummeting temperatures.

The day before, his twin brother, Jumaa al-Batran, perished from the cold in the displaced family’s flimsy tent in Deir el-Balah, also in the centre of the enclave, his father said, describing how Jumaa had been discovered with his head as “cold as ice”.

The babies were born one month prematurely.

Israeli forces have displaced almost all of the 2.3 million residents of Gaza, forcing tens of thousands of them into makeshift tents in open-air camps along the rainy, windswept coast.

Three of the six Palestinian babies who have died of hypothermia in the past week lived in the coastal “safe zone” of al-Mawasi, close to the southern town of Khan Younis.

Gaza’s Government Media Office said on Monday that “bitter cold and frost” hitting “dilapidated tents” in the strip’s camps had killed seven people, including an adult healthcare worker.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported on Monday that 27 people had been killed over the previous 24 hours.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudari said: “You can’t imagine the situation right now. We are all freezing and shaking due to the very cold weather. … Especially those who are in al-Mawasi very close to the beach are suffering from the cold.”

“We’re talking about Palestinians who have been displaced for more than 14 months. They still have the same tent. There [are] no tent tarps. It’s also very expensive to afford any nylon or any equipment or tools to cover your tent and even winter clothes [and] blankets.”

In parallel, Israel has attacked two hospitals – al-Wafaa and al-Ahli – in Gaza City. The bombing of al-Wafaa on Sunday killed seven people and critically wounded others, according to the Palestinian Civil Defence.

A witness at the scene of the al-Wafaa bombing described seeing bodies “ripped to pieces”. The Israeli military said its attack targeted a Hamas “command and control centre”, but it provided no evidence to support this assertion.

Israeli forces also detained hundreds of Palestinians, including dozens of medical staff from Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza on Friday. Among them was its director, Dr Hussam Abu Safia.

The military has not disclosed Abu Safia’s whereabouts. However, CNN reported on Monday that he was being kept at the Sde Teiman army base, which is also a detention facility in the Negev desert in southern Israel. It quoted two recently released Palestinian prisoners who had seen him and heard his name being read out.

On Monday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, called for Abu Safia’s immediate release.

Tedros, who last week escaped an Israeli strike on Yemen’s main airport that he said hit metres away from him, said in a post on X that hospitals in Gaza had become “battlegrounds” and the health system was “under severe threat”.

“We repeat: stop attacks on hospitals. People in Gaza need access to health care. Humanitarians need access to provide health aid. Ceasefire!” he said.

Meanwhile, Israeli media released a video of the moments before Abu Safia was detained by Israeli forces. The footage captured his efforts to move hundreds of patients and medical staff to safety after the Israeli military issued a 15-minute warning to leave the hospital.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said the military had released the footage in a bid to depict their operations as “incredibly targeted, precise and humane”.

“But later on, we have heard from eyewitnesses … quite the opposite in terms of the humiliation [and] bad treatment that they received at the hands of the Israeli soldiers [and] the brutal beatings that they have witnessed during the military operations,” he added.

Since Israel’s war began in October 2023, Gaza’s residents have endured severe shortages of electricity, drinking water, food and medical services as the vast majority of them have been forced out of their homes and displaced – many repeatedly.

The Israeli genocide in Gaza has killed at least 45,541 Palestinians and wounded 108,338. More than 1,100 people were killed in Israel during Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and dozens were taken captive.