Gaza baby dies from exposure to cold as WHO warns of rising infection rates

Detailed summary

A nine-month-old baby has become the first victim of falling temperatures in Gaza as winter sets in, the local health authority said on Friday.Kinan Ahmed Arqiq was declared dead…

A nine-month-old baby has become the first victim of falling temperatures in Gaza as winter sets in, the local health authority said on Friday.

Kinan Ahmed Arqiq was declared dead on arrival at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis after being transferred from the Kuwaiti Hospital on Thursday, the Gaza Health Ministry said in a post on Telegram. A forensic examination confirmed that the death was caused by severe hypothermia.

The infant's death underlines mounting global concern over the lack of adequate shelter, clothing and medical supplies to protect Gazans from the winter cold and rains.

Five people, including three children, were killed when a sand bank collapsed on to tents in central Gaza on November 7 following heavy rain that also flooded tens of thousands of tents in displacement camps.

Most of Gaza's more than two million people are living in makeshift shelters after two years of heavy Israeli bombardment and a ground offensive destroyed homes and infrastructure across vast swathes of the Palestinian territory.

On Thursday, a group of 53 UN member states and other organisations urged Israel’s incoming government to lift restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza.

The appeal, issued at the UN in New York and led by Britain, Qatar and Jordan, called for aid to enter through all available crossings and land routes, and for humanitarian corridors through Egypt and Jordan to operate fully and predictably.

Britain’s ambassador Sarah MacIntosh, who spoke on behalf of the co-signatories of the Gaza Call to Action on Humanitarian Access and Health, said constraints on the entry of critical shelter items and other life-saving supplies continued to prevent humanitarian organisations from responding at the scale required.

She warned that people without adequate shelter faced hypothermia, respiratory infections, waterborne diseases and other preventable illnesses.

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