Children in Gaza are battling hypothermia as temperatures drop and the war continues around them

At least four infants have died of hypothermia in recent weeks The Gaza Stripwhere hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by nearly 15 months of war are huddled in tents on the rainy, windy coast as winter sets in.

Jomaa al-Batran, 20 days old, was found with her head “as cold as ice” when her parents woke up on Sunday, said her father, Yehia. The child's twin, Ali, was rushed to the intensive care unit of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

The father said the twins were born one month early and only spent one day in the nursery at the hospital, which like other health centers in Gaza frustrated and slow working.

He said doctors told the mother to keep the newborns warm, but it was possible because they live in a tent and the temperature often drops below 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) at night. Death from hypothermia can occur at temperatures between 30 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

“We are eight people, we only have four blankets,” said al-Batran as he hugged his son's body. He described the dew drops that seeped into the tent lid throughout the night. “Look at his face because it's cold. Can you see how cold he is?”

Children, some of them barefoot, stood outside and watched her cry. The covered baby was laid at the imam's feet, above his shoes. After the prayer, the imam took off his ankle-length robe and wrapped it around my father.

“Feel warm brother” “father.”

Dr. Fidda Al-Nadi, a doctor at Nasser Hospital, told CBS News that they admit one or two cases of hypothermia every day. The very young, says Al-Nadi, are the most vulnerable.

“In this pressure we live in, many children are born prematurely, and this puts them at a greater risk of hypothermia,” said Al-Nadi.

Mahmoud al-Faseeh buried his daughter Sila last week – she died of hypothermia when she was only 3 weeks old.

“I went to wake him up to breastfeed and he was cold and blue, he was bleeding from the nose,” she told the Associated Press. “His heart had stopped because of the intense cold.”

Israel launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip after declaring war on Hamas following a deadly attack by the group's forces on October 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people.

Israel's bombing and ground offensive in Gaza has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of whom are women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.

What's annoying it has caused the destruction of the whole world and displaced 90 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million people, often multiple times.

Aid groups have struggled to deliver food and supplies and say there is a shortage of blankets, warm clothes and firewood.

Elsewhere, an Israeli strike on the top floor of a hospital in Gaza City on Sunday killed at least seven people and wounded several others, according to Civil Defense, the first responders working with the Hamas-run government. The Israeli military said it hit a Hamas control center inside the building, which it said no longer functions as a hospital.

A strike near Nuseirat in central Gaza killed eight and injured more than 15, according to Al-Awda hospital officials.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said that soldiers fired five bombs from northern Gaza towards Israel, for the second time in two days, adding that two were intercepted and the others may have landed in open areas. Rockets from northern Gaza have been rare in recent months as the Israeli military has stepped up operations there.

Holly Williams contributed to this report.