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Hadeel al-Kafarna, who has been living in a tent since the start of the war, holds her 6-week-old son, Yousuf, in her arms in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Jan. 5, 2025. “Most of the time, we huddle together” for warmth, she says. |
By Ghada Abdulfattah Contributor
Jan. 07, 2025, 4:59 p.m. ET | Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip
December began as a month of joy for Yahya al-Batran and his wife, Nora, when they welcomed twin sons into the world: Jomaa and Ali.
“They were small, sweet, and beautiful,” Mr. Batran recalls.
The month ended in tragedy. Three weeks later, they buried Jomaa, who died from hypothermia Dec. 29 in their makeshift tent on the Deir al-Balah coast, in central Gaza. His twin, Ali, is fighting for his life in the intensive care unit.
Why
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For tens of thousands of Palestinian families forced from their homes by 15 months of war, the temporary shelters they have constructed are no match for Gaza’s winter winds and rain. Supplies are expensive. Infants are especially vulnerable.
“I saw them dying. I cried; I wept. I felt helpless and hopeless,” Ms. Batran says while waiting Sunday for Ali to recover at the ICU at Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. “I am so tired.”
After escaping an Israeli siege and shelling in northern Gaza, the family was felled by an unexpected danger: the cold.
“Imagine watching your child die in front of you and feeling utterly powerless,” says Mr. Batran from his tent in western Deir al-Balah. “What can I do? Cold is death.”
For tens of thousands of displaced Gaza Palestinians living in flimsy, temporary shelters, it has been a winter of sorrow and hardship.
Their deteriorating makeshift tents – patchworks of blankets, clothes, cardboard, and whatever materials displaced families can find – are woefully inadequate to confront the winter’s rains and temperatures below 46 degrees Fahrenheit at night.,,, READ MORE
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2025/0107/gaza-winter-cold-rain-illness
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