3 Newborn Babies Freeze to Death in Israel’s “Humanitarian Safe Zone” in Gaza

Three newborn babies have frozen to death in Israel’s designated “humanitarian safe zone” in Gaza over the past two days, as Israeli authorities block the entry of nearly all cold weather supplies into the besieged enclave.

The Gaza Health Ministry’s head, Munir al-Bursh, shared on social media that the babies were exposed to “extreme cold” in their tents on the beach in Al-Mawasi in south Gaza. They were aged three days, three weeks and one month. According to the children’s ward director at Nasser Hospital, Ahmed al-Farra, the three babies had been brought to the hospital over the past 48 hours.

Al-Bursh posted a video of Sila Mahmoud Al-Faseeh, born earlier this month, whose parents brought her to Nasser Hospital, in Khan Yunis. Her father, holding his deceased child still shrouded in a blanket, explained how his family had been displaced 10 times amid Israel’s genocide — as 90 percent of Gaza’s population has been forcibly displaced by the Israeli military.

“I was warming her and holding her. But… [we] didn’t have extra clothes for me to warm this girl,” the baby’s mother, Nariman Al-Faseeh, told CNN.

According to the UN, nearly 1 million Palestinians in Gaza are in need of cold weather supplies like clothing and shelter, but Israeli forces have only allowed in enough aid to meet 23 percent of shelter needs for the winter. The Israeli military has also destroyed 70 percent of homes across Gaza, as well as the majority of other places where people could otherwise take shelter, like schools. Al-Mawasi, the “safe zone” designated by Israel, is a desert area with very little infrastructure.

Temperatures in Gaza can drop to the 40s at night in the winter, with wind and rain compounding the cold and lack of sealing materials for tent shelters — supplies that are now sold at extremely high prices to families who had to leave most of their belongings behind when they fled their homes. Infectious diseases may also rise due to the cold temperatures, the UN says.

The night that al-Faseeh died, her dad told The Associated Press, temperatures dropped to 48 degrees Fahrenheit.

“[Al-Faseeh] was in good health and she was born naturally, but because of the severe cold in the tents there was a significant decrease in temperature which made her bodily system stop working and led to her death,” al-Farra told Al Jazeera.

These babies’ deaths are likely going uncounted in Gaza authorities’ official death toll of the genocide, which largely excludes “indirect” deaths like those to disease or starvation. Rather, the official toll, which stands at over 45,000, mostly counts deaths from “direct” attacks like bombings.

According to the official toll, Israel has killed 14,500 children since October 2023. This is at least one child per hour, as the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reported on Tuesday.

“Killing children cannot be justified. Those who survive are scarred physically and emotionally. Deprived of learning, boys and girls in Gaza sift through the rubble,” UNRWA wrote. “The clock is ticking for these children. They are losing their lives, their futures and mostly their hope.”