Gaza baby dies from hypothermia as storm floods displacement camps

An eight-month-old infant has died from hypothermia in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian health ministry said on Thursday, as displaced families endure flooded tents and a severe absence of humanitarian relief.

Munir al-Barsh, the ministry's director general, said Raha Abu Jazar died in Khan Younis in the south of the enclave "as a result of the cold and rainwater flooding her tent".

News of Rahaf's death had already circulated online, with relatives saying she succumbed to the cold. In one video, a family member says: "The cold killed her. People of the world, no one cares about them – the children are dying one by one."

Her death came less than an hour after al-Barsh warned that children, older people, and the sick were at risk of dying from plunging temperatures and floodwater inside their tents.

Storm Byron has battered the war-torn enclave, with the Civil Defence reporting heavy rainfall across the south. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said streets were flooded and large numbers of tents were soaked, worsening already dire conditions for displaced Palestinians.

Civil Defence teams received more than 2,500 appeals over the past 24 hours from families whose tents were inundated with water, spokesperson Mahmud Basal said earlier on Thursday.

The severe weather is expected to continue until Friday evening.

Israel's right-wing Channel 14, which is supportive of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Gaza, mocked the flooding and scenes of suffering. During a broadcast this week, the channel showed footage of flooded tents and crying women, framing the misery as divine punishment.

"I can't activate any inch of my heart that shows empathy for the Arabs in the Gaza Strip… What's happening right now is basically cleansing. God gave them the punishment and now he's kind of cleansing the Strip with the water," one commentator said.

"They actively participated in the massacre… all of them," another commentator added, referring to the 7 October 2023 attack. Hamas says the operation was carried out in response to Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestine and years-long siege of Gaza.

Several ministers in Netanyahu’s government have openly called for the displacement of Gaza’s population and the annexation of the territory so Israeli settlers can return.

Much of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced at least once during Israel's two-year onslaught, which killed more than 70,000 people, most of them women and children.

A "ceasefire" has held for about nine weeks, though Israeli fire continues, killing over 300 people so far.

Under the US-brokered ceasefire plan, humanitarian aid was supposed to reach the Strip in significant volumes, but Israel continues to obstruct deliveries.

By late September, the Gaza government media office estimated that around 93 percent of tents in the Strip – 125,000 out of 135,000 – were no longer suitable for use.

The Rafah crossing with Egypt, a critical lifeline for aid, remains shut. Israel has only opened it for Palestinians to leave, prompting renewed fears in Cairo that it aims to forcibly expel Gaza’s population for an eventual takeover of the enclave.