
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — As December's chill settled over Gaza, the family's nylon tent offered little refuge. So each night, Eseid Abdeen covered his frail newborn son with four blankets, periodically shining a flashlight on the baby’s eyes to confirm he was all right.
Until Wednesday night, when 29-day-old Saeed, his tiny body wracked by the cold, did not respond.
The infant, who had been born prematurely and very underweight, became the second baby to die of hypothermia in recent days at Nasser Hospital, doctors said Thursday. They warned there could soon be others if conditions in the tent camps housing thousands of Palestinians are not improved.
“I always feared for him and tried to keep him warm. But it is very cold,” the child’s mother, Rawya Abdeen, told The Associated Press on Thursday. When doctors reported her son had died, her screams of anguish drew the neighbors. “Why him?” she cried.
Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, the director of pediatrics at Nasser, said the baby arrived at the hospital late Wednesday night with a body temperature of 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), well below the level where hypothermia sets in. Medics did everything they could to revive the child, but he died early Thursday, al-Farra said.
Overnight temperatures in Gaza have reached 6 degrees Celsius (43 degrees Fahrenheit) in recent days.
“We are warning that this tragedy will happen again unless there is a permanent solution for babies, and specifically premature babies, because they are more vulnerable to the dropping temperatures,” al-Farra said. “They live in worn-out tents that are exposed to winds and cold weather and lack all means to stay warm in these tents.”
The doctor said cold is a particular threat to premature babies because their fat tissues are underdeveloped and their bodies lose energy quickly.
The infant’s death raises to 13 the number of people killed in Gaza since a strong storm hit the strip last week, the health ministry said. They included 11 people killed when heavy rains collapsed already damaged buildings, as well as the two children who perished because of the cold. The first baby lost to hypothermia, two-week-old Mohamed Khair, had been born after a full-term pregnancy.
Though the current ceasefire has been in place for two months, not enough shelter materials have been allowed into Gaza, aid groups say. Recently released Israeli military figures suggest it hasn’t met the ceasefire stipulation of allowing 600 trucks of aid into Gaza a day, though Israel disputes that finding. American officials with the U.S.-led center coordinating aid shipments into Gaza also say deliveries have reached the agreed-upon levels.
The vast majority of Gaza’s 2 million people have been displaced, and most people live in tent camps stretching along the coast or set up among the shells of damaged buildings. The buildings lack adequate flooding infrastructure and people use cesspits dug near tents as toilets.
The Abdeens said their makeshift tent, in southern Gaza's Muwasi, is regularly inundated by rainwater.
Rawya Abdeen said her son had weighed just 1.3 kilograms (2.9 pounds) at birth and spent two weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit.
When the boy’s father shone a light on him at around 10 p.m. Wednesday, the baby did not respond with his usual squint. An examination under the light revealed the child was throwing up, his mother said, and the family rushed him to the hospital. His father said he had prayed for Saeed's survival, before doctors called in the morning to tell them the infant had perished.
“I was willing to trade my soul to save him,” Eseid Abdeen said.
NEUESTE BEITRÄGE
- 1
Taste the World: Five Food sources That Have Dazzled Worldwide Palates05.06.2024 - 2
My Enterprising Excursion: Building a Startup06.06.2024 - 3
The capacity to understand people on a profound level: Exploring Life's Intricacies01.01.1 - 4
Strengthening through Wellness: Individual Preparation Achievement22.09.2023 - 5
2026 Golden Globes: How to watch, start time, TV channel, full nominee list and more08.01.2026
Ähnliche Artikel
Space Condos to Lift Your Metropolitan Living05.06.2024
See the moon shine with Saturn in the southern sky after sunset Dec. 2626.12.2025
Pick Your Number one sort of blossom06.06.2024
The Specialty of Compromise: Examples from Reality22.09.2023
Will your baby get a hep B vaccine? What RFK panel's ruling means.05.12.2025
From Certificate to Dollars: College Majors with Extraordinary Monetary Prizes05.06.2024
Best bar-b-que Style: Which One Is Your Number one?01.01.1
The Best Cell phone Brands for Tech Lovers07.07.2023
Chinese mega embassy could bring security advantages, says No 1002.12.2025
What to know about MIT professor Nuno Loureiro and the investigation into his shooting17.12.2025














