Chilled to the bone: Gaza’s newborns face winter’s cruelty

It has been ten days since 22-year-old Nariman Al-Fasih buried her 13-day-old daughter, Siella. At almost two-weeks-old, baby Siella succumbed to hypothermia in their fragile tent in Al-Mawasi.

The loss remains raw, and every chilling gust of wind slicing through the worn fabric of the family’s displacement tent reopens the wound. The bitter cold that seeps into Nariman’s own thin clothing now carries a sharper sting—a relentless reminder of the daughter she couldn’t keep warm.

Her husband, Mahmoud Al-Fasih, tries to console her, wiping away tears as she clutches Siella’s tiny clothes and the threadbare blanket that once covered her. His efforts are in vain. “I keep telling her to accept what God has willed,” the 31-year-old tells TRT World, his voice trembling. He urges her to find strength for their two other children—four-year-old Ryan and two-year-old Nihad—but his words ring hollow, even to him.

He has been unable to tear down the handwritten welcome notes he hung outside the tent to celebrate Siella’s birth. Now, they flutter in the strong wind, a haunting reminder of what they have lost.

As Gaza endures its second winter amid a vicious Israeli war, the suffering of its people deepens. Over 90 percent of the population has been displaced, and with essential humanitarian aid blocked, their situation grows more dire. Amid growing hunger, flimsy tents, and an absence of warmth, at least seven newborns have died from hypothermia this month alone.

In their tattered tent near Gaza’s stormy coastline, the husband and wife relive the events leading up to Siella’s death. Nariman recalls how her daughter had seemed fine that night, breastfeeding three times, the last at 3 am. She placed Siella between herself and Mahmoud for warmth. At dawn, Mahmoud woke to light a fire, only to find Siella unnervingly still.

“We found her motionless,” Nariman whispers. “Her tiny body was frozen.”

They rushed to a nearby field hospital, where doctors attempted resuscitation, but it was too late. “Her entire body had turned blue,” Mahmoud recalls, his voice breaking. The cause of death was clear: exposure to the biting cold in a tent that offered no real shelter.

Since October 7, 2023, over 45,000 Palestinians have died in the Israeli war. While most have been killed by shelling and violence, others have succumbed to hunger. Hypothermia has now emerged as another silent killer in the besieged enclave, with seven babies reported to have died from the cold.

The chilling reality

Dr. Ahmed Saeed, head of pediatrics at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, told TRT World that the newborns who died from hypothermia were between four days and one month old. “These infants, who had no prior health issues, succumbed to severe hypothermia, which leads to cardiac arrest, turning the child’s body into a block of ice,” he explained.

Newborns are particularly vulnerable because of their limited ability to regulate body temperature, small body surface area, and lack of subcutaneous fat tissue, Dr. Saeed added.

“All the cases we’ve seen involve families displaced into tents that fail to meet even the basic requirements for survival,” he said. “Parents wake up to find their baby silent and motionless, only to discover that the child has turned into ice.”

Siella’s death has plunged her family into a spiral of heartbreak and helplessness. Mahmoud speaks of his pain: “To hold your child, dreaming of her future, only to lose her to something preventable—it’s a pain no father should endure.” He blames the war for their suffering. “If we had even basic heating or proper shelter, she would still be with us. But the war has robbed us of everything.”

The family has been displaced 13 times since October 10 last year, fleeing relentless bombings that destroyed their home in northern Gaza. Now, in Al-Mawasi, they live in a tent that barely withstands the winter storms. Mahmoud, who lost his job as a taxi driver due to the conflict, struggles to provide for his family. “We are surviving on scraps, and our tent feels more like a freezer than a home,” he says.

Saeed emphasised the insufficiency of humanitarian aid. “The shortage in basic supplies is acute, from diapers to formula and clothing. UNICEF recently provided clothing for 250 newborns, but the supplies ran out within two days. How are we supposed to care for the rest?” he asked.

Nariman now fears for her other children, who sleep wrapped in layers of borrowed clothes under scant bedding. “The cold doesn’t spare anyone,” she says, her voice trembling. “I keep checking on them through the night, afraid they’ll freeze like Siella.”

Constant fear

Nearly 500 metres away, Sanaa Al-Astal worries for the safety of her newborn, Eyas, born in mid-December. Layering multiple pieces of clothing over Eyas to keep him warm, Sanaa feels helpless. Malnourished and weak from the lack of proper food, she struggles to recover from childbirth and to breastfeed her baby.

“We haven’t had any animal protein in four months,” she says. “Before that, we could rarely afford it because of inflated prices.”

Living in constant fear, Al-Astal spends sleepless nights trying to keep Eyas warm. “I rub his body, cradle him, feed him—I do everything I can to keep him alive in this freezing winter,” she says.

According to Dr. Saeed, pregnant women in Gaza are trapped between two grim outcomes: fetal death or premature delivery. “This has resulted in a surge of preterm births, while full-term newborns are being born underweight,” he noted.

“These are alarming indicators. Preterm infants require specialised care, their respiratory systems are fragile, and their immune systems are weak. Unfortunately, we lack the necessary ventilators and medical equipment to provide them with the care they need,” he said.

Expecting more cases of hypothermia as the humanitarian conditions continue to deteriorate, Saeed firmly states, “The only solution is to stop the war and allow the entry of aid and essential supplies for children and others. Without this, we are facing an escalation in civilian disasters, particularly among vulnerable groups like children.”

This piece is published in collaboration with Egab.