Israel kills five medical workers as another child freezes to death in Gaza | News

A doctor, a lab technician and two maintenance workers were among those killed in the fourth child in three days who died of cold during the genocide in Israel.

Israeli airstrikes have killed five workers at one of the last hospitals in northern Gaza, the center's director said, as more snow fell in the besieged and bombed Palestinian enclave.

Hussam Abu Safia, the head of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, said on Thursday that “martyrs include doctors.”

Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary, reporting from central Gaza, said a laboratory technician and two maintenance workers were among those killed in the incident.

“We know that the hospital is one of the medical facilities that is still working, and it is working with a small amount of human resources and a lack of medical equipment,” he said.

“The Israeli army has been attacking the compound of the Kamal Adwan hospital, sending quadcopters into the hospital and shooting at Palestinians.”

The hospital is out of business after weeks of daily attacks. Earlier, Israeli soldiers killed the director of the hospital's ICU, Dr. Ahmed al-Kahlout, and a number of medical workers were injured in the attack in and around the facility.

Khoudary said Palestinian rescuers could not reach the bodies of those who died in the hospital. “People cannot bury those Palestinians who are killed every day by the Israeli army in northern Gaza,” he added.

Israel launched a major ground offensive in northern Gaza on October 5, saying it aimed to prevent the Palestinian group Hamas from regrouping.

Since then, not enough humanitarian aid, including food, medicine and fuel, has been allowed into the area, leaving the remaining population at risk of starvation.

The World Health Organization described the conditions at Kamal Adwan Hospital as “shocking” and said it was operating at a “low level”.

Another child is freezing to death

Meanwhile, a fourth baby died due to freezing cold within 72 hours in Gaza, Wafa media reported on Thursday.

Medical sources said the child died due to the drop in temperature as the humanitarian situation worsened across the region.

“The tents don't protect against the cold, and it's very cold at night with no way to warm up,” said Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, chief pediatrician at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza's Khan Younis neighborhood.

In more than a year of Israeli attacks and a lack of aid, many families in Gaza have been left without adequate shelter and resources to cope with the changing climate.

Local health officials told Wafa that food shortages among mothers contribute to increased health problems in children, which continue to strain medical facilities and emergency services.

Israel's bombing and ground offensive in Gaza has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, more than half of whom are women and children. The attack also caused widespread destruction and displaced nearly 90 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million residents, often multiple times.

Hundreds of thousands of people are packed into tents on the beach as the cold, wet winter begins. Aid groups have struggled to deliver food and supplies and say there is a shortage of blankets, warm clothes and firewood.