Three Palestinian babies have died of hypothermia in southern Gaza over the past two days, as a stifling Israeli siege makes harsh winter conditions uninhabitable.

Doctors reported Wednesday that a three-week-old girl froze to death overnight as temperatures plummeted amid a wet winter in the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave.

The baby’s tent was not windproof and the floor was cold, doctors said.

On Thursday, another baby, Sila Mahmoud al-Faseeh, was found unconscious. By the time doctors contacted her, her lungs had deteriorated and she was pronounced dead of hypothermia.

“In the morning, when her mother was going to breastfeed her again, we found her blue, with blood coming out of her mouth because of the cold,” her father said in a statement. video shared online, holding her in a white shroud with her purple lips visible on her pale face.

“She had bitten her tongue and was freezing.”

The baby “froze to death due to the extreme cold” in al-Mawasi, said Dr. Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Palestinian Health Ministry. X.

In another jobhe described Gaza’s tents as “refrigerators of death”, citing the deaths of two other babies from the freezing cold.

According to Ahmed al-Farra, head of the pediatrics and obstetrics department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the infants were three days and one month old.

“She bit her tongue and was frozen.”

– Father of the deceased baby

The deaths underscore the dire conditions in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are crammed into abandoned makeshift tents, fleeing Israeli bombardments in different parts of the strip.

The Israeli military has occupied and besieged Gaza since October 2023, preventing almost all necessary life-saving supplies – including electricity, clean water, fuel, food, medicine and tents – from reaching civilians.

Israeli forces have killed at least 45,259 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry released on Sunday. The majority of those killed are women and children.

Dozens more died due to harsh conditions imposed by the Israeli army, including starvation, lack of medical care and hypothermia.

Child killed every hour

On Tuesday, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, issued a damning statement, revealing that a child is killed in Gaza every hour amid the relentless Israeli assault.

“It’s not just numbers; these are lives lost in a short period of time without any justification,” the agency said, highlighting the devastating toll of Israel’s actions.

In a job on X, the agency highlighted the heartbreaking plight of Gaza’s children, many of whom are physically and emotionally scarred. Those who survive suffer the trauma of displacement, are deprived of education and must search for food among the ruins of their homes.

UNRWA revealed that at least 14,500 children were killed during the conflict, calling for an immediate end to the war. “The killing of children cannot be justified,” the agency stressed, calling for global action to end the bloodshed.

Last week, more than 50 British MPs and their peers have signed a letter urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer to implement a medical evacuation program for injured Palestinian children in Gaza.

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Meanwhile, the prospect of reaching a ceasefire in Gaza remains elusive as Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas continue to trade blame for blocking the deal.

This comes after both sides said progress had been made in recent weeks in indirect negotiations led by Qatar And Egypt.

On Wednesday, Hamas said Israel had set new conditions, leading to delays in reaching a ceasefire agreement. The conditions would concern the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the release of Israeli captives and the return of displaced Palestinians.

The Palestinian group, however, said it was showing flexibility and that negotiations on a ceasefire were progressing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying Hamas “continues to lie” and “reneges on agreements already made” during ceasefire talks in Gaza.

The statement further states that Hamas “continues to create difficulties in the negotiations” and that “Israel will continue its relentless efforts to return all our hostages.”