During the last nine months of the Gaza war, Nora al-Batran was pregnant with twins. The 38-year-old was displaced several times with her husband and children as they avoided bombs and gunfire and sought refuge in a tent in the city of Deir al Balah.
On December 6, al-Batran gave birth to her twin sons, Jumaa and Ali, at the city’s Al-Aqsa Hospital.
But two weeks later, Jumaa died of hypothermia as cold weather set in and al-Batran struggled to keep her babies warm at night under the canvas of her tent.
“Because of the cold, my kids stopped moving, they stopped breastfeeding,” she told CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife. “It is very difficult…. It’s very cold.”
Cold weather and heavy rains have hit large parts of the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, leaving many Palestinians living in tents at risk from the elements. A father dug a hole under his tent to provide shelter for his family.
According to Dr. Ahmed al Farra of the Nasser Medical Complex, Jumaa was among eight babies who died of hypothermia in recent weeks.
In the second winter of war in Gaza, the weather has caused additional suffering for hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Jumaa al-Batran was born on December 6 with his twin brother, but due to the severe weather in Gaza, Jumaa did not survive a bout of hypothermia.
At this time of year, temperatures in Gaza drop to around 10°C to 15°C at night.
A report A study released in January by UNRWA, the United Nations relief agency for Palestine, said babies die of hypothermia because they lack access to basic supplies that do not make it across the border to civilians in Gaza.
“Supplies that would protect them have been stuck in the region for months, awaiting permission from Israeli authorities to enter Gaza,” it said.
Infants are at higher risk of hypothermia because they lose heat more quickly than adults. Gaza’s weather has forced many to spend hours in wet and cold conditions, both problems that can lead to hypothermia. after to health professionals.
Al-Batran sits in her tent, her son Ali in her arms, and remembers the day she found Jumaa’s lifeless body next to her.
She said she wrapped Jumaa in as many blankets as she could find the night before, leaving only his nose exposed so he could breathe, and placed a bottle of hot water in his blankets to keep him warm.
“I woke up at 6am to find my son blue and cold. He wasn’t breathing,” al-Batan said. “I felt guilty because my child died of the cold in front of my eyes and I couldn’t do anything for him.”
Tayseer Obeid hopes the 1.5 meter deep hole he dug under his tent will protect his children from the cold, but he cannot protect them from the war.
The eight babies who died were all less than a month old, said Al Farra, head of pediatrics at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza.
“The situation is very critical and very serious. (Newborns) cannot protect themselves from severe hypothermia because they are fragile babies,” he told El Saife.
Babies are more susceptible to hypothermia
Al Farra said these babies were already vulnerable to hypothermia, even if they lived in buildings with heat. “So what happens when they’re in a tent with no furniture, no electricity, no fuel for heat?”
Al Farra said every day he sees four to five cases of babies with hypothermia at Nasser Hospital.
While the hospital is doing everything it can to warm the babies and advise parents on how to keep them warm, he said some are arriving already dead, such as Jumaa.
Al-Batran is among hundreds of mothers trying to survive the winter with their families. She said her older children slept close together, using body heat to keep warm, while she focused on month-old Ali.
“The nights are very cold, people are living in makeshift tents, every time it’s too windy it rains into their tents,” Amanda Bazerolle, emergency coordinator at Doctors Without Borders, told CBC News.
Bazerolle said that last winter many of those displaced were in Rafah, where buildings still stood and people could find shelter.
“Most of the population now lives in tents or makeshift tents, so they are much more at risk and much more exposed to the elements,” Bazerolle said.
In a post on XIsrael’s official unit tasked with coordinating humanitarian initiatives, COGAT, said it was working with partners to “facilitate the delivery of vital supplies and winter equipment to Gaza.” The post goes on to say that 8,400 tons of winter items have entered the Gaza Strip in the past three months, “including heaters, blankets, coats and clothing.”
Protection from the cold
In Khan Younis, a worried father tries to protect his children from the cold by going underground.
Tayseer Obeid dug a two meter wide and 1.5 meter deep hole under his tent to provide his ten children with refuge from the bad weather.
The holes, which he said people describe as “grave-like,” are lined with plastic sheeting to prevent sand from falling on the family.
He built shelves to store the family’s sparse belongings and stairs out of sand to make it easier for children to get in and out.
Above ground, he put together two tents to accommodate his family. Both only have plastic sheets as a cover. In the midst of all this, he built two swings for his children to play on. He said it took him 60 days to dig the hole.
“It was a daily routine for me. A daily routine that is hard and tiring,” he told El Saife. “The ground is hard and tough, and there were days when we were just tired.”
Back in Deir al Balah, al-Batran holds her surviving son Ali in her arms.
The one-month-old is wrapped in many blankets after his last visit to the intensive care unit of Al-Aqsa Hospital with symptoms of hypothermia.
With few options available, the mother relied on bottles of hot water that she placed in his blankets to keep the baby warm. But these only last a short time before they cool down.
She said she fled the war in northern Gaza and encountered destruction, cold and hunger in central Gaza.
“How can someone live like that?” she said. “How do I keep my children warm?”
