‘Her skin was blue, she was gone’: Parents in Gaza recall the horrors of seeing their babies freeze to death
A woman and baby inside a tent at a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah, Gaza, on 18 January 2024
Eman Alhaj Ali reports in The New Arab on 10 January, 2025:
“The most heartbreaking thing in life is helplessly watching your children suffer and die before your eyes while feeling utterly powerless to change their fate.”
These were the words of Yahia Al-Batran, 39, as he described the grief of losing his children, who died from the cold amid Israel’s ongoing blockade and bombings of hospitals across the Gaza Strip — an ongoing crisis that worsened after 7 October 2023.
Nearing the 16th month of the Gaza genocide, the fate of Gaza’s children is a heartbreaking tragedy, with Yahia not being the only one to share such painful stories.
With Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) sounding the alarm on 2 January, warning that more infants were expected to be affected by hypothermia, and the World Health Organization also condemning Israel’s attacks, The New Arab spoke to parents like Yahia to share their stories of losing their children.
‘He was frozen, like he was in a freezer’
In the Al Mawasi area of Khan Younis, known for being severely impacted by Israel’s blockade, lives the mother of Yousef Ahmed Anwar Kallub, who was only 35 days old when he passed away.
“His health was fine; I carried him for nine months and didn’t really celebrate his birth,” she began.
With tears falling, she added, “Because of Israel’s blockade, he died from the cold. He was sleeping next to me, and we held him close. I fell asleep, and when I woke up in the morning, he was frozen, like he had been in a freezer.”
“He wore old clothes I got from a second-hand shop but he didn’t have enough — just two outfits. Our tent is made of fabric; nobody seems to care about what we’re going through,” the devastated mother tells The New Arab. “We only have a couple of blankets, and I gather my children around me to keep them warm. I have three kids — two daughters and a son besides Yousef.” In her despair, the mother admitted that Yousef died in a tent that was unfit for both winter and summer — just a tent made of tattered cloth and nylon.
‘My sorrow is a silent scream’
Also living in the Al Mawasi area of Khan Younis is the mother of Sila Al-Fasih, whose two-year-old child, like Yousef, also passed away.