GAZA STRIP: Gaza health officials said that a 20-day-old baby died on Sunday from “severe cold” as the war-ravaged Palestinian territory grapples with winter weather.

On the same day, an Israeli air strike on a hospital killed at least seven people.

The child, Jumaa al-Batran, died from the cold, while his twin brother remains in the intensive care unit at a local hospital, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement.

Marwan al-Hamas, head of field hospitals in Gaza, confirmed the death. He said it brought to five the total number of children “who have died due to severe cold” in recent weeks.

Five children dead so far due to severe cold; strike at Al-Wafaa Hospital kills seven

“There is no electricity. The water is cold and there is no gas, heating or food,” said Yahya al-Batran, the father of the child.

“My children are dying in front of my eyes and nobody cares. Jumaa has died and I fear that his brother Ali may follow.”

Strike on hospitals

Israeli forces targetted the upper floor of Al-Wafaa Hospital in central Gaza City, killing seven people, a civil defence agency statement said.

Israel’s military said it had carried out a “precise strike” targeting members of Hamas’s aerial defence unit operating from a “command and control centre in a building that served in the past as the Al-Wafaa hospital”.

“The building does not currently serve as a hospital,” the military said.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the hospital was still in use.

The strike on Al-Wafaa Hospital came a day after the military ended a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. The military also detained the hospital’s chief, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, saying he was suspected of being a Hamas militant.

Israeli tanks also shelled the upper floor of the Al-Ahly Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza City near the X-ray division, Gaza health officials said on Sunday.

The Gaza health ministry said on Sunday that 30 people had been killed in the Palestinian territory in the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll of the war to 45,514.

New evacuation orders

Israeli forces have issued new evacuation order for residents in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, according to residents.

The instruction to residents to leave caused a new wave of displacement, although it was not immediately clear how many people were affected, the residents said.

The Israeli military announced its new push into the Beit Hanoun area on Saturday.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2024