Baby dies of hypothermia, as Israeli attacks across Gaza surge

A baby has died of hypothermia in southern Gaza, amid plummeting temperatures and continuing Israeli restrictions on aid, AFP reported, citing medical sources. Nine-month-old Kinan Ahmed Raqiq was found dead by his father as they sheltered in a tent in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis overnight. Raqiq’s father Ahmed, stood weeping outside Nasser Hospital, as he held his son’s shrouded body. “I woke up only to see his skin had turned blue so I rushed him to Nasser Hospital, but he had already died from hypothermia and frozen to death,” he told AFP.

“I am in complete shock. I found myself holding my son wrapped in a burial shroud.” New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Heavy rains have swept through Gaza, inundating thousands of tents where the majority of the enclave’s population are forced to shelter amid ongoing Israeli restrictions on aid entering the territory.

As temperatures plummeted on Thursday, Israeli attacks across Gaza surged, with health officials putting the total toll of people killed since dawn at 11. The day before baby Raqiq’s death, two Israeli drones tore through that same hospital’s surgical department, killing six people, including a surgeon and a child and wounding around 30 others. An AFP journalist who was at the scene reported that one of the building's exterior staircases had partially collapsed and that indoors an entire floor was damaged, with broken concrete from collapsed walls mixed with broken medical equipment.

Medical Aid for Palestine reported on Friday that surgical services at the hospital have been suspended and that “comprehensive repair and rehabilitation works” are required to reopen them. Five more deaths Gaza’s civil defence reported an additional five deaths in a slew of other attacks across the enclave on Thursday. One person was killed by Israeli fire near al-Bureij camp, and another in a strike targeting a civilian vehicle in Deir el-Balah, both in central Gaza.

Wafa named the victim in the second strike as 26-year-old Nashat Fouad Awwad. ‘A slow genocide accelerated’: How Gaza’s winter ‘crisis’ is manufactured by Israel Read More » Meanwhile, in western Gaza City an Israeli drone struck a vehicle near the entrance to Al-Shifa Hospital, killing two people. Wafa also reports another attack in northern Gaza's Jabalia, which killed one person and wounded several others. The attacks have continued into Friday, with one person shot dead by Israeli forces in Gaza City’s Tuffah neighbourhood, Al Jazeera reports, citing sources at Al-Shifa hospital.

At least 1,614 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the so-called ceasefire took effect in October last year, with another 5,849 wounded. The overall toll of Palestinians killed since Israel launched its genocide on Gaza in October 2023 now stands at 74,645, with another 175,978 wounded, and thousands of others missing or buried under rubble. Copyright © 2014 - 2026 . Middle East Eye. All rights reserved. Only England and Wales jurisdiction apply in all legal matters.

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