Temperatures are predicted to continue to decline in Gaza over the next few days, where thousands of displaced people are taking refuge in tents. Four newborns and infants have perished from hypothermia in recent days, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement released Friday by Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “These avoidable deaths exposed the dire and worsening circumstances that families and children in Gaza are facing,” Mr. Beigbeder added. “It is tragically foreseeable that more children will perish as a result of the cruel conditions they are living in, especially as temperatures are predicted to drop further in the coming days.”
Gaza faces widespread hunger
The senior official emphasized that many people in Gaza lack access to healthcare and sustenance in addition to the ongoing fear of strikes. He claimed their temporary shelters are insufficient to keep out the bitter cold. Palestinians continue to lose their lives in continuing fighting throughout the Gaza Strip, even close to medical institutions. These attacks, which have also claimed the lives of humanitarian and health workers, have alarmed the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Numerous persons, including medical personnel, were killed in an airstrike that occurred last night close to Kamal Adwan Hospital in the North Gaza governorate. According to an update from the office, staff, patients, and their companions were compelled to leave Kamal Adwan Hospital today. Aid convoys are far too regularly denied permission to enter the Gaza Strip and deliver supplies to families in need, according to reports from UNICEF and other UN agencies. Mr. Beigbeder pointed out that, on average, 65 truckloads of aid per day entered the enclave in November, which was by far insufficient to meet the pressing needs of women, children, and other civilians. In a social media statement on Friday, he and the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN emergency food relief agency, asked to open all access crossings.
Infants die from extreme cold
The Office stated in a social media post on Friday that the journalists were unarmed and unmistakably press personnel when an airstrike struck their vehicle near the Al Awda hospital in Gaza. The Office reiterated that immediate action is required to safeguard all civilians in Gaza, including journalists, and that the Israeli military’s allegation that the journalists were connected to Palestinian armed groups does not negate their protection as civilians. The Office is demanding that the killings be investigated thoroughly and objectively. According to OCHA, Israeli military actions in the West Bank have killed 20 Palestinians in the last 10 days, including 12 from airstrikes, as of Thursday. Significant infrastructure damage was caused by a military operation in the Tulkarm refugee camp, and OCHA expressed concern about the frequent use of deadly, warlike techniques that went beyond what is required by law enforcement. Additionally, according to OCHA, the number of Palestinians displaced in the West Bank in 2024 was the most since records had been kept for almost 20 years. As of Tuesday, Israeli military operations, demolitions, settler violence, and access restrictions have resulted in the displacement of 4,706 Palestinians, including 1,949 children.
Journalists targeted in airstrike
Five of its journalists were murdered in an Israeli strike in the central Gaza Strip, according to a Palestinian TV broadcaster. In the central Nuseirat refugee camp, they were in a Quds Today vehicle parked outside al-Awda hospital, where one of the journalists’ wives was set to give birth. A video of what appeared to be the flaming car with “press” signs on the rear doors was uploaded by the station. “Islamic Jihad operatives posing as journalists” were the target of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which said precautions were being made to prevent civilian casualties. It is thought that the group provides funds to the TV channel. Separately, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital on Gaza’s northern border reported Thursday that an Israeli strike on a medical building had killed roughly 50 people, including five employees. Among them were two paramedics and a pediatrician. While investigating reports that five doctors had been murdered, the IDF stated that it was “unaware of strikes” in the hospital area.
Humanitarian crisis deepens
The five journalists who were slain in the central Gaza Strip were described as “devastated by the reports” by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). “Journalists are civilians and must always be protected,” it read. The Israeli military identified the five individuals who were murdered as Fadi Ihab, Mohammed Ayad Khamis al-Ladaa, Faisal Abdallah Muhammad Abu Qamsan, Ayman Nihad Abd Alrahman Jadi, and Ibrahim Jamal Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Ali. Hassouna Muhammad Ramadan. Quds Today has ties to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an armed organization that participated in the Hamas-led assault on Israel on October 7, 2023. The war in Gaza began as a result of the extraordinary attacks.
