Nine-month-old baby dies of cold in Gaza

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A nine-month-old baby died of hypothermia on Thursday, his father and a doctor told AFP, after days of harsh weather and flooding in the Gaza Strip that displaced thousands of…

A nine-month-old baby died of hypothermia on Thursday, his father and a doctor told AFP, after days of harsh weather and flooding in the Gaza Strip that displaced thousands of Palestinians living in tents.

The doctor, who saw the child and spoke on condition of anonymity, said that nine-month-old Kinan Ahmed Raqiq "died from hypothermia inside his family's displacement tent" in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Ahmed Raqiq, told AFP that his son Kinan died of cold during the night in their tent in southern Gaza.

"I woke up only to see his skin had turned blue so I rushed him to Nasser hospital, but he had already died from hypothermia and frozen to death," he said.

"I am in complete shock. I found myself holding my son wrapped in burial shroud," he said outside the hospital, dried tears on his face as he held his son wrapped in a white sheet.

Heavy rain last week flooded tens of thousands of people's tents in Gaza, where virtually the whole population has been displaced at least once by three years of Israeli strikes in response to the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

Five people including three children died the day after the flooding when a sandy embankment collapsed onto their tents.

Since then, hundreds of displaced families have been seen fleeing camps in parts of Gaza City and central and northern areas of the territory after they were inundated by rainwater.

James Elder, spokesman on Gaza for the UN children's agency, UNICEF, warned that the flooding was just the beginning of the cold season.

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