A three-week-old baby girl, Sila, is reported to have died from frost bite as she froze to death during the night in Gaza while Israelis and Palestinians continue to trade blame over delays to cease-fire negotiations to end the 14-month conflict.
The infant was the third baby that died from the cold in recent days in the Gaza’s congested tent cities. The deceased doctors have said that it has been due to the horrible conditions in which several hundred thousand Palestinians are now living after being driven out by Israeli shelling. The camps are overcrowded with tents and there is inadequate defense against the extreme cold, food like blankets, winter wear clothing and firewood are scarce.
Mahmoud al-Faseeh, Sila’s father, put a blanket on her in a tent in the Muwasi area near Khan Younis but cold was overpowering. The tent provided close to no shelter from wind and the ground was icy by the evening as Tuesday night’s temperatures hit 9°C (48°F). As children, it was freezing at night, and since we are all adults now, imagine how much worse it must have been for us. Whenever it froze they couldn’t keep warm al-Faseeh told me. His daughter cried three times at night and early morning was lifeless, her body cold and rigid. Finally, she was given to a field hospital where efforts to complete the resuscitating process failed due to already spoiled lungs.
The incident brought to the debacle about the soaring humanitarian issue in the Gaza where Israel’s military actions have claimed the lives of more than 45, 000 Palestinians including women and children. The Gaza health ministry, which includes both combatants and civilians in its figures, described damage across the territory, with more than 90% of the population of 2.3 million displaced.
Despite an increase in aid deliveries—averaging 130 trucks per day in December compared to about 70 in October and November—humanitarian groups say the aid is insufficient to meet the growing needs. Many trucks are either blocked by Israeli forces or suffer from theft, preventing supplies from reaching those most in need. A previous truce in November 2023 freed more than 100 hostages, while others have been rescued or their remains have been recovered over the past year.
Sila's death adds to the mounting toll of innocent lives lost amid the ongoing conflict, underscoring the hardships faced by civilians caught in the middle of this devastating war.
