“Baby turned blue from the cold”… 9-month-old infant in tent in Gaza Strip

Due to Israeli air strikes, Gaza residents living in tents in refugee camps are being driven to a survival crisis due to cold and heavy rain ahead of winter.

According to AFP on the 12th (local time), a 9-month-old baby froze to death in a refugee camp in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, Palestine.

Ahmed Rakik, who has been living in the refugee camp, told AFP that his son Keenan died inside the tent due to the overnight cold.

He complained, “When I woke up, the child’s skin had turned blue,” and “I rushed him to the hospital, but he was already frozen to death from hypothermia.”

Rakik suppressed his grief by wrapping his son's body in a white cloth and wiping away his dried tears.

According to AFP, heavy rain poured down in the Gaza Strip last week, flooding tents in refugee camps where thousands of people who lost their homes due to Israeli air strikes were staying.

The day after the tent was flooded by heavy rain, a sand embankment collapsed and engulfed the tent, killing five people, including three children.

In some areas of Gaza City and in central and northern Gaza, refugee camp tents were flooded with rainwater, causing hundreds of victims.

James Elder, spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the Gaza Strip, said, "With winter just a few weeks away, we are experiencing unprecedented rain and cold weather," and expressed concern that the flooding is only the beginning.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that 26,000 households were damaged by the storm as of the 8th of this month.

In Gaza, about 65% of residents still live in tents or other temporary shelters.

The Gaza Peace Committee, led by U.S. President Donald Trump, urged Israel to send more relief supplies to Gaza to prepare for the cold weather, but Israel countered that Hamas is responsible for the suffering suffered by Gaza residents.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said relief supplies, including 91,000 tents, had already been sent to Gaza and that "Hamas must not be allowed to misuse humanitarian supplies and equipment to rebuild its terrorist capabilities."