Fifth infant freezes to death in Gaza as Israeli blockade and winter storms devastate enclave

“What we are experiencing now in the Gaza Strip is a true humanitarian catastrophe. Save the children of Gaza before the cold claims them.”

Saeed Abedeen, a 29-day-old infant, froze to death in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. He became the fifth child to freeze to death within a week in the besieged enclave, as conditions continue to deteriorate amid a deadly Israeli blockade of humanitarian aid and worsening weather conditions.

A storm hit the genocide survivors of Gaza last week and led to the deaths of 19 Palestinians, 14 of whom died after a destroyed building in which they had taken shelter gave way under the stress of the fierce storm and unrelenting rains. The five infants all froze to death in the absence of adequate shelter, as flimsy tents — which dot all of Gaza after the Israelis destroyed nearly all buildings over the past two years of their ongoing genocide — have flooded and remain inadequate in the face of chilly winds.

“No respite for the children in #Gaza as the bitter cold & floods brought by Storm Byron turn deadly,” UNRWA’s Philippe Lazzarini tweeted on Wednesday. “Whilst the storm is a natural hazard, its consequences are man-made for a population forced to live amid collapsing ruins in makeshift shelters or in flimsy tents.”

The supposed “ceasefire,” which came into effect in October, stipulated the entry of 600 aid trucks daily into Gaza. However, the Israelis have allowed a mere fraction of that number, as they have violated the terms of the “ceasefire” with total impunity since the day it came into effect.

“Approximately 90 percent of the shelters in the Gaza Strip have been completely submerged due to floods and rainwater,” Mahmoud Basal, the spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defence, revealed on Tuesday. “All citizens’ tents in various areas of the Strip have been damaged and submerged, leading to thousands of families losing their temporary shelter, causing damage to citizens’ clothes, bedding, and blankets, and exacerbating their humanitarian suffering.”

“Since the beginning of the low-pressure systems, more than 17 residential buildings have completely collapsed,” Basal said. “More than 90 residential buildings have suffered serious partial collapses, posing a direct threat to the lives of thousands of citizens.”

Highlighting the state of desperation in the enclave, Basal revealed that his team has received “more than 5,000 appeals and distress calls from citizens since the start of the rains in the Gaza Strip.”

Further, the spokesman said that tents have proven inadequate in meeting people’s needs amid rains and storms and reiterated the need to begin reconstruction in the Gaza Strip. “We affirm that tents have proven their complete failure in the Gaza Strip, and we demand that concerned parties and international institutions definitively stop introducing tents,” Basal said. “We demand the immediate and urgent start of the reconstruction process and the provision of safe housing that preserves human dignity and protects lives.”

On the same day, UNRWA also tweeted about the urgency of flooding Gaza with essentials before any more lives are lost. “Aid must be allowed in at scale, now,” the UN agency said on Tuesday.

These fervent appeals from authorities inside Gaza and agencies coordinating aid into the Strip, however, have fallen on deaf ears, as the Israelis have weaponised the harsh winter into another tool of oppression and suffering against those who have continued to survive relentless bombardment over the past 26 months.

Not a single mobile home has entered the Gaza Strip, neither during this “ceasefire” nor during the “ceasefire” at the start of this year, as Palestinians continue to survive in fraying tents that are barely holding up after two years of constant use, including being repeatedly uprooted and re-pitched after families were forced to run helter-skelter under threat of Israeli bombing.

In such circumstances, the prospects of reconstruction remain a far cry, as the Israelis continue to bomb with alarming regularity, having killed 395 more Palestinians since the start of the “ceasefire.”

The few functioning hospitals in Gaza are running short of essential medicines and other supplies due to the Israeli blockade, deepening the crisis inside the enclave. About 55 percent of medicines are currently unavailable in the Gaza Strip, according to an update from Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Gaza’s largest medical facility, Al-Shifa Hospital.

Nevertheless, the guarantors of the “ceasefire,” which include the United States and its vassal states in the Muslim world, have remained silent on the dire humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave as Palestinian suffering exacerbates with each passing day.

On Wednesday night, Basal of the Gaza Civil Defence sent out another fervent appeal. “Tonight temperatures will drop significantly, and the bitter cold threatens the lives of young children who lack shelter and heating,” he wrote on his Telegram account. “What we are experiencing now in the Gaza Strip is a true humanitarian catastrophe. Save the children of Gaza before the cold claims them.”

In 29-day-old Saeed Abedeen, the cold has claimed yet another child victim, in what is turning out to be the third straight deadly winter for the long-suffering people of Gaza, with no relief on the horizon.

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