Daily atrocities and tragedies continue in Gaza, Palestine, still bombarded by the Israeli army. Health authorities in the Gaza Strip announced on Sunday the death of a baby less than three weeks old due to the “intense cold” currently experiencing the Palestinian territory devastated by more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas.
The Hamas Health Ministry in Gaza said in a statement that Joumaa al-Batran, who was only 20 days old, “died due to the intense cold” while his twin brother Ali remains in intensive care in a local hospital. Marwan al-Hamas, head of field hospitals in Gaza, confirmed the death and said five infants had now died in recent weeks in the Palestinian coastal strip “due to the cold”.
“There is no electricity or hot water, no gas or heating, no food,” lamented Yahya al-Batran, the baby’s father. “My children are dying before my eyes and no one cares. Joumaa is dead and I fear that his brother will follow him. » Yahya al-Batran describes living with his wife in “an old, dilapidated tent” in the town of Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza.
The Hamas government press service warned on Sunday of bad weather conditions expected in the coming hours and days in Gaza, “a serious threat to displaced families living in tents”.
A hospital targeted
That same Sunday, Gaza Civil Defense announced that at least seven people had been killed in a strike on a hospital which, according to the Israeli army, housed fighters from the Palestinian movement Hamas and was no longer functional.
“An Israeli strike on the upper floor of al-Wafaa hospital in the center of Gaza City (north) left seven martyrs and several injured, some in serious condition,” the agency said in a statement. Civil defense of the Palestinian territory, scene of more than a year of war with Israel.
The Israeli army said it had carried out a “targeted strike” against a Hamas air defense unit which it said was using the establishment as a command center “to prepare and launch terrorist attacks” against its troops. “The building is not currently used as a hospital,” she said.
Thirty deaths in the last twenty-four hours
The Hamas government’s Health Ministry for the Gaza Strip said the facility was “partially functional.” “Patients with physical disabilities are treated there,” said ministry director general Mounir al-Barch.
“The hospital had been restored and was preparing to receive patients,” he added. “It could have reopened normally in the coming days if it had not been hit today (Sunday) by Israel. » Furthermore, the Ministry of Health of the Hamas government communicated a death toll of 30 in the Gaza Strip in the last twenty-four hours.
