Life in tent camps becomes especially difficult during the winter months. WHO: Seven newborn babies died of hypothermia in Gaza Humanitarian aid
Hypothermia has killed seven newborns in Gaza, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. January is the coldest month in the Strip, with temperatures dropping. Heavy rains have left tents in refugee camps soaked and damaged, leaving many displaced people without adequate shelter or warmth.
“Cold weather also exacerbates the spread of disease, leaving vulnerable populations even more vulnerable,” the WHO said in a statement on Platform X.
“Imagine going through this as a mother or a father. You see your child dying in front of you from the cold. This should not happen in the 21st century. A child should not die because they did not have a blanket, warm clothes or shoes,” said Juliet Tuma, Director of Communications at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
The head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Tom Fletcher, stressed that UN agencies are continuing to try to deliver aid to the sector, including water, food and medicine, but their efforts are facing many obstacles and the conditions in which they work are becoming increasingly dangerous.
“There is no civil order [in Gaza]. Israeli forces are unable or unwilling to provide security for our convoys. Statements from Israeli authorities denigrate our aid workers, even after they are attacked by the military. Local volunteers who accompany our convoys are attacked. There is now a perception that it is dangerous to protect aid convoys, but safe to loot them,” Fletcher said.
He recalled the latest incidents. In one of them, armed Palestinian gangs hijacked six fuel trucks entering through the Kerem Shalom crossing, leaving humanitarian organizations with virtually no fuel to carry out their operations.
In another incident, a UN humanitarian mission returning from Jabaliya encountered hostile Israeli soldiers who threatened critically ill patients and arrested four of them.
Read also:
UN humanitarian convoy comes under fire in Gaza
On Sunday, Israeli troops fired on a World Food Programme convoy, despite the fact that the WFP had previously received all the necessary permits from the Israeli authorities to move its vehicles. At least 16 bullets hit the vehicles. Fortunately, no WFP staff were injured.
“More than 45,000 Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis have been killed since the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023. The people of Gaza have endured more than 14 months of displacement, trauma, destruction of schools, hospitals and civilian infrastructure, and famine,” Fletcher said.
“I call on UN Member States to insist on the protection of all civilians and all humanitarian operations,” he stressed.