Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – With a pale face and unrelenting tears, Eman Abu al-Khair sits inside her tent, clutching a small bag of her infant’s clothes. Her newborn had died of hypothermia the day before.
The devastated mother, 34-years-old, still cannot believe she lost her baby, Mohammed, alive for just 14 days. Amid the devastation left by Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, she simply wasn’t able to keep him warm enough.
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“I can still hear his tiny cries in my ears,” Eman tells Al Jazeera, the pain visible on her face. “I sleep and drift off, unable to believe that his crying and waking me at night will never happen again.”
The family’s tragedy began late on the night of December 13 in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, where they had moved to after being displaced from their home in the east of Khan Younis.
Eman put her baby to sleep, then woke later to check on him and found him in an alarming condition.
Temperatures had dropped, and without proper shelter or clothing for a newborn, there was no protection for Mohammed.
“His body was cold as ice. His hands and feet were frozen, his face stiff and yellowish, and he was barely breathing,” she recalls.
“I woke my husband immediately so we could take him to the hospital, but he couldn’t find any means of transportation to get us there.”
It was late at night, and heavy rain was still pouring, making it impossible for the father to reach the hospital even on foot.
With no alternative, the family had to wait until the morning.
“As soon as daylight broke, we rushed with an animal-drawn cart towards the hospital,” Eman says. “But unfortunately, we arrived too late. His condition was already critical.”
Medical staff at the Red Crescent Hospital in Khan Younis were shocked by the infant’s deteriorated state. His face had turned completely blue, and he was convulsing, prompting doctors to rush him into the paediatric intensive care unit.
Mohammed spent two days in intensive care on a ventilator before he died on the morning of December 15.
“My baby had no medical problems. His tests showed no illness. His tiny body simply couldn’t withstand the extreme cold inside the tents,” Eman says, her eyes filling with tears.
On Tuesday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health announced the death of an infant due to a severe drop in body temperature caused by extreme cold amid harsh living conditions brought on by the recent weather.
In a press statement, the ministry said that infant Mohammed Khalil Abu al-Khair, two weeks old, had died from acute hypothermia.
“The child, Abu al-Khair, arrived at the hospital two days ago and was admitted to the intensive care unit, but he passed away yesterday,” the statement said.
With Mohammed’s death, the number of children who have died from the cold weather in Gaza has risen to four this month, after the ministry announced three similar deaths during the previous week.
Celebration turned to devastation
The Abu al-Khair family had welcomed the birth of Mohammed on December 1 in an atmosphere of joy and celebration after a gruelling pregnancy that, as ِِEman describes, was filled with hardship, with the war still ongoing.
“My pregnancy was extremely difficult. We went through very hard conditions and famine, and I was e
