A sixth-month-old baby has died from hypothermia in southern Gaza, becoming the eleventh child to lose their life to the cold since the onset of winter. The infant, Youssef Omar Abu Hammala, was living with his family in a makeshift shelter in the al-Mawasi area near Khan Younis, where flimsy materials offered little defence against plunging night-time temperatures. Medical workers said exposure and the lack of basic protection proved fatal.

Families across Gaza are enduring winter in conditions unfit for survival, sheltering in tents or improvised structures after repeated displacement during the ongoing genocidal war. With fuel scarce, warm clothing limited and medicine in short supply, infants and young children have been left particularly vulnerable. Parents describe nights spent trying to shield babies from the cold with little more than blankets and plastic sheets, as temperatures drop and storms sweep through overcrowded encampments.

The rising toll has been exacerbated by severe restrictions on humanitarian relief, which have curtailed the delivery of winter supplies and hampered aid operations. Health workers warn that exposure-related deaths are only one facet of a broader crisis, as weakened children face heightened risks of illness. International agencies have cautioned that vaccination programmes remain disrupted, leaving many children unprotected against disease at a time when cold and overcrowding accelerate the spread of infection.

As winter continues, the deaths of Gaza’s children from cold are being seen not as isolated incidents, but as the predictable outcome of a humanitarian collapse driven by the genocidal war. Calls for urgent intervention are growing, with local voices insisting that without immediate access to adequate shelter, heating and medical care, the youngest will continue to pay with their lives.