"The most heartbreaking thing in life is helplessly watching your children suffer and die before your eyes while feeling utterly powerless to change their fate."
These were the words of Yahia Al-Batran, 39, as he described the grief of losing his children, who died from the cold amid Israel's ongoing blockade and bombings of hospitals across the Gaza Strip — an ongoing crisis that worsened after 7 October 2023.
Nearing the 16th month of the Gaza genocide, the fate of Gaza’s children is a heartbreaking tragedy, with Yahia not being the only one to share such painful stories.
With Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) sounding the alarm on 2 January, warning that more infants were expected to be affected by hypothermia, and the World Health Organization also condemning Israel's attacks, The New Arab spoke to parents like Yahia to share their stories of losing their children.
'He was frozen, like he was in a freezer'
In the Al Mawasi area of Khan Younis, known for being severely impacted by Israel's blockade, lives the mother of Yousef Ahmed Anwar Kallub, who was only 35 days old when he passed away.
"His health was fine; I carried him for nine months and didn’t really celebrate his birth," she began.
With tears falling, she added, "Because of Israel's blockade, he died from the cold. He was sleeping next to me, and we held him close. I fell asleep, and when I woke up in the morning, he was frozen, like he had been in a freezer."
"He wore old clothes I got from a second-hand shop but he didn’t have enough — just two outfits. Our tent is made of fabric; nobody seems to care about what we’re going through," the devastated mother tells The New Arab.
"We only have a couple of blankets, and I gather my children around me to keep them warm. I have three kids — two daughters and a son besides Yousef."
In her despair, the mother admitted that Yousef died in a tent that was unfit for both winter and summer — just a tent made of tattered cloth and nylon.
'My sorrow is a silent scream'
Also living in the Al Mawasi area of Khan Younis is the mother of Sila Al-Fasih, whose two-year-old child, like Yousef, also passed away.
Nariman al-Fasih, 35, shared that on the night of Sila's death, she had only three thin blankets for her family of five — herself, her husband, and their children two-year-old Nihad and four-year-old Rayan — which wasn’t enough to keep them warm.
At around 4 am, Nariman said she woke up to breastfeed Sila and found her unresponsive. "Her skin was blue, and she was bleeding from her mouth and nose," Nariman recalled.
With no heartbeat or normal breathing, Nariman went on to explain that she and her husband rushed Sila to the Nasser Hospital, but doctors confirmed she had died from a heart attack caused by the extreme cold, despite the family borrowing clothes for their children from neighbours.
"My daughter used to encourage me to keep going, but now, after her loss, I feel all hope is gone. I've lost a part of myself, a part that can never be returned," Sila's father told The New Arab.
"In the chaos and destruction, my sorrow is a silent scream, the pain of a father who has lost the most precious thing he had."
Pointing to Israel's genocide that has contributed to their suffering, Sila's father explained that they now sleep on the sand in a tent unfit for living, their life is miserable, and he cannot feed his children due to the ongoing destruction and their repeated displacement.
'Skin and lips turning blue, as cold as ice'
Just a few kilometres away from the parents of Yousef and Sila in Khan Younis, live the parents of Aisha Adnan al-Qassas, who, like the others, are now also dead.
On the morning of 20 December, Adnan, 24, and his wife, Rana, were jolted awake by a scream. “I woke up to my wife’s screams. Our daughter was still, her skin and lips turning blue, as cold as ice,” Adnan told The New Arab.
Recounting the events of that morning, Adnan explained that the family had been forced to leave the Sheikh Nasser region in eastern Khan Younis and had to live in a damaged tent near the coast in al-Mawasi. As Adnan described, the freezing temperatures in the tent were unbearable, and after rushing Aisha to the Nasser Medical Hospital, he was told she had already died from the cold hours earlier.
Like Sila’s father, who blamed his daughter’s death on Israel’s blockade and genocide, Adnan and his wife also expressed their concerns about the future. Adnan shared, “We don’t have enough mattresses or blankets. My four children are squeezed onto two mattresses with just two blankets. There are no warm clothes, and even if there were, I can’t afford to buy them.”
'Fleeing from bombs and death, only to face another kind of death'
In central Gaza, Yahia, the father and husband of the Al-Batran family spoke to The New Arab about the loss of his twins, Jumaa and Ali.
Yahia shared, “We first lost Jumaa, who was only 20 days old, and shortly after, his brother Ali passed away after being in the neonatal intensive care unit at Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah.”
He added that the twins were born prematurely at eight months, putting their mother at risk — just as many pregnant women have faced during Israel’s genocide.
Yahia, along with his wife, went on to explain that after the twins’ birth, they couldn’t stay in the NICU where they needed to be due to the destruction of hospitals and the shortage of medical supplies caused by Israel’s attacks.
“The genocide has destroyed hospitals and neonatal care units,” Yahia said, “leaving us without the medical help our children needed.”
Yahia recalled the dire conditions, saying, “I was evacuated from the north along with my children and my disabled mother, fleeing from bombs and death, only to face another kind of death through cold and starvation.”
In saying this, Yahia explained that they were given only one electrical device to warm the babies, which worked for just three hours.
“When the device is charged, it lasts for only three hours,” Yahia said. “I divided this time equally — an hour and a half for Ali and an hour and a half for Jumaa.”
Due to power cuts following Israel’s genocide in Gaza and with few options, Yahia had to go to the hospital to charge the device. He shared, “We’ve been suffering from starvation, and their mother had nothing to breastfeed them. I started feeding them milk from aid supplies, boiling it over a fire since we didn’t have gas.”
Sadly, despite his efforts, the cold took his children. Yahia described the morning when he discovered Jumaa’s condition: “I found his face cold, and we discovered that the device’s battery had died. The temperature of his limbs was like ice, even though I wrapped him in a blanket I took from a neighbour. It didn’t stop the frost from his body.”
After rushing the children to the hospital, the doctor saw Jumaa and told Yahia, “I’m sorry for your loss,” and although the surviving twin, Ali, was placed in a heating device, he too passed away the following day.
Yahia, now left to support his surviving children, described his current circumstances, “We can’t find good or healthy food; we’re lucky to eat just pieces of bread with tea.”
He added, “One of my children collects pieces of nylon, cardboard, and plastic daily from the rubbish to use for starting fires.”
The elderly also pay the price
While speaking to the families, stories also emerged of the elderly dying due to Israel's blockade and genocide during the cold conditions.
Fifty-five-year-old Afaf Al Khatib passed away in a tent in Al Mawasi, Khan Younis, as well.
Speaking to The New Arab, her nephew, Mohanad, said, "My aunt became the ninth martyr among the displaced in Gaza due to the extreme cold," adding that Afaf had been displaced multiple times because of the ongoing Israeli assaults on Gaza.
According to Mohanad, Afaf lost a limb last winter due to an infection caused by contaminated rainwater, a consequence of Gaza's crumbling infrastructure, worsened by the blockade.
Although she received a prosthetic limb just two weeks ago, Mohanad added that she couldn't survive the freezing temperatures that seeped into her tent, made even more unbearable by the constant assaults.
By 1 am, Afaf's condition got worse, and though she was rushed to the hospital, she died before getting treatment due to her kidney disease and the lack of dialysis supplies caused by the blockade.
For Mohanad, although Afaf has passed, her memory serves as a reminder of the pain endured by Gazans.
With many more heartbreaking stories like theirs, the suffering is expected to worsen as temperatures continue to drop in the coming months.
Eman Alhaj Ali is a Palestinian freelance journalist, writer, translator, and storyteller based in Gaza with publications on a variety of international and local websites
Follow her on X: @EmanAlhajAli1