Written by Ramadan Abed and Nidal Al-Maghrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Yahya Al-Batran woke up in the early hours of Sunday morning to find his wife, Noura, trying to wake up their twin sons, Jumaa and Ali, as they lay together in a makeshift tent inhabited by the family in a camp in the Gaza Strip. Central Gaza Strip.

The harsh winter cold and heavy rains across the coastal strip in the previous days had made their lives miserable, but what he heard was much more dangerous.

He told Reuters on Sunday, “She said she was trying to wake Jumaa but he was not waking up. She asked about Ali and she said he was not coming up either.” “I raised Jumaa. He was white and frozen like snow, like ice, frozen.”

One-month-old Jumaa died of hypothermia, one of six Palestinians who died from exposure to cold and cold during recent days in Gaza, according to doctors. Ali was in critical condition on Monday in intensive care.

In the second winter of the war in Gaza, the weather added an additional element of suffering to hundreds of thousands of people who were already displaced, often several times over, while efforts to agree a ceasefire came to nothing.

Jumaa Al-Batran’s death shows the severity of the situation facing vulnerable families.

Israeli authorities say they have allowed thousands of aid trucks carrying food, water, medical equipment and shelter supplies to enter Gaza. International relief agencies say Israeli forces are obstructing aid deliveries, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.

The family of Yahya al-Batran, from the northern town of Beit Lahia, fled their home early in the war to al-Maghazi, an open patch of sand dunes and jungle in central Gaza that Israeli authorities declared a humanitarian zone.

Later, when Al-Maghazi became increasingly unsafe, they moved to another camp in the nearby city of Deir Al-Balah.

“Since I’m an adult, I can take this and put up with it, but what did the kid do to deserve this?” Juma’s mother, Noura Al-Batran, said. “He couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t stand the cold or the hunger and this despair.”

Torn tents

Across the area, dozens of tents, many already torn after months of use, were blown away or soaked by strong winds and rain, leaving families struggling to repair the damage, patching up torn plastic sheets and accumulating sand to restrain the damage. water.

This is another aspect of the humanitarian crisis facing Gaza’s 2.3 million people, who have fallen prey to the ongoing Israeli campaign against the remnants of Hamas, and who depend on an aid system that is erratic and increasingly vulnerable to looting as the regime collapses.

The Israeli campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, and turned the Strip into a wasteland of rubble and destroyed buildings.

The war was sparked by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken to Gaza hostage, according to Israeli statistics.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) said on Sunday that aid was woefully inadequate and a ceasefire was urgently needed to provide it as famine loomed.

Earlier this month, Israeli and Hamas leaders expressed hope that talks brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the United States would lead to an agreement to stop fighting and return Israeli hostages held by Hamas, which could open the way to a full ceasefire agreement.

But optimistic talk of reaching an agreement before the end of the year has faded, and it remains unclear how close the two sides are to reaching an agreement.

Even as the displaced suffer, Israeli forces are fighting Hamas fighters in the devastated area around the northern towns of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahia, which are now beyond the reach of emergency services cut off by the fighting.