A nine-month-old infant has become the latest casualty of the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, succumbing to hypothermia as frigid winter temperatures, heavy rainfall and sweeping Israeli aid restrictions leave hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians exposed to life-threatening conditions, medical sources confirmed to AFP. The child, identified as Kinan Ahmed Raqiq, was discovered unresponsive by his father inside a makeshift displacement tent in Khan Younis’ al-Mawasi area during the overnight hours, as harsh cold swept across the southern enclave. Grief-stricken, the infant’s father Ahmed stood outside Nasser Hospital clutching his son’s shrouded remains, recounting the devastating moment he realized his child had passed. “I woke up to find his skin had turned blue. I rushed him straight to Nasser Hospital, but he had already died from hypothermia, frozen to death,” he told AFP. “I am still in complete shock. I never imagined I would be holding my own son wrapped in a burial shroud.”
Torrential downpours have battered Gaza in recent days, submerging thousands of flimsy tents that house the vast majority of the territory’s population, who were forcibly displaced from their homes amid ongoing military operations and Israeli blockades that drastically limit the entry of critical shelter supplies, warm clothing and emergency aid. The same day temperatures dropped sharply on Thursday, Israeli military assaults across the enclave intensified dramatically, with local health authorities recording 11 fatalities from attacks that unfolded between dawn and midday.
Just 24 hours before baby Kinan’s death, two Israeli drone strikes targeted Nasser Hospital’s surgical department, killing six people including a practicing surgeon and a young child, while injuring approximately 30 other patients and medical staff. An AFP correspondent who arrived on the scene documented severe structural damage: one of the facility’s external staircases had partially collapsed, and an entire upper floor was left in ruins, with crumbled concrete from shattered walls scattered alongside destroyed medical equipment. Medical Aid for Palestine confirmed in a Friday update that all surgical services at Nasser Hospital have been fully suspended, noting that extensive, large-scale repair and rehabilitation work will be required before the department can safely resume operations.
Gaza’s Civil Defence agency additionally documented five more fatalities from a wave of separate military strikes across the enclave on Thursday. One civilian was shot dead by Israeli forces near the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, while a 26-year-old man named Nashat Fouad Awwad was killed when a civilian vehicle he was riding in was targeted in an airstrike in Deir el-Balah. Further west, in Gaza City, an Israeli drone struck a vehicle near the main entrance of Al-Shifa Hospital, killing two occupants. An additional attack in the northern Gaza Jabalia neighbourhood claimed one life and left multiple other people wounded. The wave of violence extended into Friday, when a person was shot and killed by Israeli troops in Gaza City’s Tuffah district, according to sources at Al-Shifa Hospital cited by Al Jazeera.
Official health data shows that at least 1,614 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military forces since the temporary ceasefire that took effect in October 2024, with a further 5,849 people sustaining injuries. Since Israel launched its large-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, the cumulative death toll of Palestinians has reached 74,645, with an additional 175,978 people recorded as wounded, and thousands more still missing or trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
Baby dies of hypothermia, as Israeli attacks across Gaza surge
