A fourth infant has died of hypothermia in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by nearly 15 months of war are staying in tents along the rainy, windy coast as winter approaches.
Jomaa al-Batran, 20 days old, was found with his head “cold as ice” on Sunday morning, his father Yehia said. The baby’s twin brother, however, was transferred to intensive care at Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital.
Their father said that they were born a month too early and that they spent only one day in the nursery at the hospital, which, like other health centers in Gaza, is overcrowded and only partially functioning.
He said doctors told their mother to warm the newborns, but that was impossible because they live in a tent and temperatures regularly drop below 10 degrees at night.
– There are eight of us, and we only have four blankets – al-Batran said while cradling his son’s pale body.
He described the drops of dew that trickled through the tent overnight.
– Look at his color because of the cold. Do you see how frozen it is? – he asked.
The children, some of them barefoot, stood outside and watched him mourn. A covered child is laid before the imam for prayer. The imam then took off his ankle-length coat and wrapped it around his father, AP reports.
(Vijesti.ba / FENA)
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