The BBCSeela was less than three weeks old when her mother Nariman realized she was not moving.
“I woke up in the morning and told my husband that the baby was not moving for a while. He uncovered his face and found him blue, his tongue was biting, his mouth was bleeding,” says Nariman Najma. was,” says Nariman Najma.
In her tent on the beach in southern Gaza, Nariman sits with her husband, Mahmoud Fasih, and their two young children – Rayan, who is four, and Nahad, who is two and a half.
The family says they have been displaced more than 10 times during the 14-month war.
In an interview with a freelance cameraman working with the BBC, Nariman says, “My husband is a fisherman, we are from the north and left with nothing but we did it for our children. ” Israel prevents international media from entering and operating freely in Gaza.
“When I was pregnant, I wondered how I would get clothes for the baby. I was really worried because my husband didn’t have a job.”
During his 20 days of life, Sela’s home was a small and overcrowded camp site in the al-Mawasi “humanitarian zone”, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the Israeli military from elsewhere in the region had been ordered to move. is given
The area suffers from poor infrastructure and sanitation, as well as flooding from both rain and Mediterranean waves.
Sayla’s father, Mehmood, says, “The cold is bitter and harsh. All night, because of the cold, we huddle together.”
“Our life is hell, it’s hell because of the effects of the war, my family was martyred, and our situation is unbearable.”
Despite telling civilians to move to the area, the Israeli military has repeatedly targeted al-Mawasi during its campaign against Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza.
Sela died not from the bombing – but still from the punishing conditions that war imposes on civilians.
He is one of six infants who have died of hypothermia in a two-week period in Gaza – where temperatures have dropped to 7C (45F) at night – according to local health officials, who also It is reported that thousands of tents have been damaged by the weather.
Nariman says that Saila was born in a British field hospital in Khan Younis area.
“After I gave birth… I started thinking about how I could save her milk, nappies. Whatever I got, it was hard to get.”
“I never thought that I would give birth in a tent, in such cold and freezing conditions, water dripping on us, water dripping into the tent and falling on us. Sometimes we have to drink water.” Had to run to escape.” For the sake of the child,” says Nariman.
Still, Sela was born without complications.
“She was in good health, thank God, when suddenly she started suffering from cold,” says Nariman. “I saw that she was sneezing and it looked like she was sick with a cold, but I never expected that she would die because of it.”
Selah was admitted to Nasir Hospital in Khan Yunis last Wednesday, where Dr Ahmed Al Fara, director of her pediatric department, said she was suffering from “severe hypothermia”, which led to loss of vital signs. He suffered a heart attack and eventually died. .
“[On the previous day] Also, two cases were reported: one was a three-day-old baby and the other was less than a month old. Both cases involve severe hypothermia, resulting in death,” says Dr. Farra.
Children have an underdeveloped mechanism for maintaining their body temperature and can easily develop hypothermia in cold environments. Babies born prematurely are particularly vulnerable, and Dr. Fara says medical professionals in Gaza have seen an increase in the number of premature births during the war.
Mothers are also suffering from malnutrition due to which they are unable to breastfeed their babies properly. According to Dr. Farra, there is also a shortage of infant formula due to limited humanitarian aid deliveries.
Then another tragic case on Sunday.
Outside al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza, another local cameraman working with the BBC met Yahya al-Batran, who couldn’t contain his anguish as he carried his dead baby, Jumma. Like Sylla, he was only 20 days old and blue from the cold.
“Touch him with your hand, he is frozen,” said Yahya. “The eight of us, there aren’t four blankets between us. What am I going to do? I’m watching my children die in front of me.”
“These preventable deaths highlight the desperate and worsening conditions facing families and children in Gaza,” UNICEF regional director Edward Begbader said in a statement on Thursday.
“With temperatures expected to drop further in the coming days, it is tragically foreseeable that more children will lose their lives to the inhumane conditions they are enduring.”
Ahead of Israeli drones, Selah’s father Mahmoud took her lifeless body from Nasir Hospital to a makeshift cemetery in Khan Yunis. There he dug a small grave in the sand.
Mahmood comforts Nariman after Sela is relieved.
“His siblings are sick, tired. We are all sick. We have chest pains, and we have colds from the cold and the rain,” says Nariman. “If we don’t die of war, we are dying of cold.”
