As temperatures dropped in Gaza, this family took shelter in a 1.5 meter hole under their tent
During the last nine months of the war in Gaza, Nora al-Batran was pregnant with twins. The 38-year-old was repeatedly displaced with her husband and children as they avoided bombs and gunfire and sought refuge in a tent in the city of Deir al Balah.
On December 6, al-Batran gave birth to her twin sons, Juma and Ali, at Al-Aqsa City Hospital.
But two weeks later, Jumaa died of hypothermia as cold weather set in and al-Batran struggled to keep her babies warm at night under the canvas tarps of her tent.
“Because of the cold, my children stopped moving, they stopped breastfeeding,” she told CBC freelance cameraman Mohamed El Saife. “It’s very hard… It’s very cold.”
Cold weather and heavy rains have hit much of the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, leaving many Palestinians living in tents at risk from the elements, with one father digging a hole under his tent to offer shelter to his family.
Jumaa was among eight babies who died of hypothermia in recent weeks, according to Dr. Ahmed al Farra from Nasser Medical Complex.
In the second winter of the Gaza war, the weather added an extra element of suffering for the hundreds of thousands of people who were displaced.
Jumaa al-Batran was born on December 6 with his twin brother, but due to the bad weather in Gaza, Jumaa did not survive the attack of hypothermia.
Temperatures drop to around 10C to 15C at night in Gaza at this time of year.
AND report released in January by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, says babies are dying of hypothermia due to lack of access to basic necessities that are not reaching civilians in Gaza across the border.
“Supplies that would have protected them have been stuck in the region for months awaiting approval from Israeli authorities to enter Gaza,” it said.
Infants are at greater risk of hypothermia because they lose heat faster than adults. Many had to spend hours wet and cold due to the weather in Gaza, both of which can lead to hypothermia. according to healthcare workers.
Sitting in her tent, with her son Ali in her arms, al-Batran recalls the day she found Juma’s lifeless body next to her.
She said the night before she had wrapped Jumao in as many blankets as she could find, only leaving his nose exposed so he could breathe, and put a hot water bottle in his blankets in an attempt to keep him warm.
“I woke up at 6am to find my son blue and frozen. He wasn’t breathing,” al-Batan said. – I felt guilty that the child died in front of my eyes from the cold and I couldn’t do anything for him.
Tayseer Obeid says he hopes the 1.5-meter-deep hole he dug under his tent will protect his children from the cold, but it cannot protect them from war.
The eight babies who died were less than a month old, said al Farra, head of pediatrics at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza.
“The situation is very critical and very serious. [Newborns] they are not able to protect themselves from severe hypothermia because they are fragile babies,” he told El Saife.
Babies are more prone to hypothermia
Al Farra said that these babies are already prone to hypothermia even if they live in buildings with heat, “so what will happen when they are in a tent with no furniture, no electricity, no heating fuel?”
Every day, al Farra said, he sees four to five cases of hypothermic babies at Nasser Hospital.
While the hospital is doing everything it can to warm the babies and advise parents on how to keep them warm, he said some arrive already dead, like Jumaa.
Al-Batran is among hundreds of mothers trying to survive the winter with their families. She said her older children sleep huddled together, using their body heat to keep warm while she focuses on one-month-old Ali.
“The nights are very cold, people are living in makeshift tents, every time it’s too windy, it rains inside their tents,” Amanda Bazerolle, MSF’s emergency coordinator, told CBC News.
Bazerolle said that last winter many of the displaced were in Rafa, where buildings were still standing and where people could take shelter.
“Today, most of the population is sheltered in tents or makeshift tents, so they’re much more at risk, they’re much more exposed to the elements,” Bazerolle said.
In post to XIsrael’s official unit in charge of coordinating humanitarian initiatives, COGAT, said it was working with partners to “facilitate the delivery of essential supplies and winter equipment to Gaza.” The announcement went on to say that 8,400 tons of winter items entered the Gaza Strip over the past three months, “including heating equipment, blankets, coats and clothing.”
Take shelter from the cold
In Khan Younis, a worried father tries to protect his children from the cold by going underground.
Tayseer Obeid dug a hole two meters wide and 1.5 meters deep under his tent to give his ten children shelter from bad weather.
The holes, which people call “grave-like,” are lined with plastic tarps to prevent sand from falling on the family.
He made shelves to hold the family’s meager belongings and sand steps to make it easier for the children to get in and out.
Above the ground, he assembled two tents to house his family. Both have only plastic tarps for covering. In the midst of all this, he made two swings for his children to play on. He said it took him 60 days to dig the hole.
“This has been a daily routine for me. A daily routine that is difficult and exhausting,” he told El Saife. “The ground is hard and tough, and there were days when we were just tired.”
In Deir al Balah, al-Batran holds his surviving son, Ali, in his arms.
The one-month-old baby was wrapped in many blankets after his last visit to the intensive care unit at Al-Aqsa Hospital with symptoms of hypothermia.
With few options available to her, the mother relied on hot water bottles placed in his blankets to keep the baby warm. But they only last a short time before they cool down.
She said she fled the war in northern Gaza and met destruction, cold and hunger in central Gaza.
“How can anyone live like this?” she said. “How do I keep my kids warm?”
