In Gaza, babies freeze to death, tents fall apart – Day 450

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In Gaza, babies freeze to death, tents fall apart – Day 450
Palestinian children struggle with cold and rainy weather as they try to survive in makeshift tents in Gaza City. (Anadolu/Getty Images)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

Israeli attacks have killed 27 Palestinians and wounded 149 in the latest 24-hour reporting period, Gaza’s Health Ministry says.

Sixth baby dies from severe cold in Gaza as Israel raids hospitals

Cold weather in Gaza has claimed the life of a baby, the sixth to die in a week, according to medical sources, as Israel continues its relentless attacks on hospitals across the strip.

One-month-old Ali al-Batran died on Monday at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, quoting medical sources who attributed his death to plummeting temperatures.

The day before, his twin brother, Jumaa al-Batran, perished from the cold in the displaced family’s flimsy tent in Deir el-Balah, also in the centre of the enclave, his father said, describing how Jumaa had been discovered with his head as “cold as ice”.

The babies were born one month prematurely.

Three of the six Palestinian babies who have died of hypothermia in the past week lived in the coastal “safe zone” of al-Mawasi, close to the southern town of Khan Younis.

RELATED: Four-day-old twins killed in Gaza by Israeli airstrike as father registered births
The dead body of one-month-old Juma al-Batran, who froze to death in a tent in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on December 29, 2024
The dead body of one-month-old Juma al-Batran, who froze to death in a tent in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on December 29, 2024 (Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency)

Over 80 percent of Gaza displacement tents destroyed by bitter winter conditions

Gaza’s government media office announced over the weekend that around 110,000 tents out of 135,000 are “worn out” and “unfit” for displaced Palestinians. 

By late November, over 80 percent of Gaza’s displacement tents had already been severely affected by the weather and the lack of essential facilities to deal with it. 

Video footage from 30 December and the past 24 hours has shown many tents, most of which are made from cloth, completely soaked in rainwater, or submerged in areas that have been flooded. 

“Babies in Gaza are freezing to death due to cold weather and lack of shelter … Blankets, mattresses, and other winter supplies have been stuck in the region for months waiting for approval to get into Gaza,” Commissioner-General of UNRWA Phillipe Lazzarini said last week, referring to Israel’s closure of all border crossings and the continued prevention of essential aid from entering the strip. Meanwhile, warplanes continue to carry out brutal attacks across the strip. 

Rain and cold temperatures make life miserable for displaced Palestinians in Gaza
Rain and cold temperatures make life miserable for displaced Palestinians in Gaza (social media)

Gaza hospital director held at notorious Israeli military detention center

A prominent Palestinian hospital director who was arrested by Israel in a raid that closed the last major functioning health facility in northern Gaza is being held at a controversial military base that doubles as a detention facility, recently released former detainees have told CNN.

The last known photo of Kamal Adwan Hospital director Hussam Abu Safiyeh before he was arrested by Israeli forces.
The last known photo of Kamal Adwan Hospital director Hussam Abu Safiyeh before he was arrested by Israeli forces. (social media)

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya has not been seen publicly since Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan hospital on Friday. Staff members accused Israeli forces of starting a fire in the hospital and said they were all rounded up outside and forced to remove their clothes, a process that took hours, before being forced to leave.

Local journalist Mohammad Al-Sharif said he was among those who were detained from the hospital before his release 11 hours later.

“We endured extremely difficult moments in inhumane conditions,” he told CNN. “The occupation army made no distinction between medical staff, patients, civilians, or journalists.”

The Israeli military said on Saturday it had detained Dr. Abu Safiya because he was “suspected of being a Hamas terrorist operative,” and claimed that the hospital was being used by Hamas as a “command and control center.” The military did not provide any evidence to support the claims.

Palestinian prisoners released this weekend from the facility said they saw Abu Safiya at the prison, and another former detainee said he heard Abu Safiya’s name being read out. CNN cannot independently verify their accounts. The Israeli military has not confirmed to CNN whether Abu Safiya is being held at the facility.

The Sde Teiman torture camp, where dozens have been killed, has been referred to as Israel’s Guantanamo. 

RECOMMENDED READING: Inside Sde Teiman, the Base Where Israel Has Detained Thousands of Gazans

Ha’aretz Op-Ed: Leave Gaza’s Hospitals Alone

Excerpt from the lead editorial in Israeli daily Ha’aretz, December 30, 2024, published in both English and Hebrew:

On Sunday, the IDF claimed that it had arrested over 240 terrorists at the hospital and that its director is suspected of being a Hamas operative. To prove this assertion, the army released pictures of two pistols and a knife found in the hospital.

This meager haul does the opposite of supporting the IDF’s claims. For two pistols and a knife you don’t evacuate dozens of patients and doctors from a hospital and march them in their underwear, on a cold night, before the cameras in order to humiliate them.

It is fair to assume that the deliberate damage to hospitals in Gaza has a different purpose. It appears that as part of the ethnic cleansing of the northern Strip.

In the absence of medical facilities, northern Gaza will be emptied faster, as the sick and wounded flee south in an effort to find care [or die]. Such a large area cannot be left without hospitals, especially in wartime.

The Fourth Geneva Convention accords special status to hospitals during wartime. The presence of small arms and ammunition in a hospital does not justify attacking it, nor does the presence of enemy fighters who are hospitalized there.

Northern Gaza has been destroyed and devastated; the IDF is now mainly engaged in completing its destruction. This is an illegitimate action, and in any case it is prohibited to include hospitals.

Israeli forces set fire on Friday to Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, which is the largest hospital in the area and serves over 400,000 citizens.
Israeli forces set fire on Friday to Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, which is the largest hospital in the area and serves over 400,000 citizens. (WAFA)

‘Systematic elimination of prisoners’: Five Palestinians die in Israeli custody within 24 hours

Four Palestinian prisoners died in Israeli custody on 30 December, bringing the number of detainees killed in Tel Aviv’s brutal prison system up to five within the past 24 hours. 

All five were detained from the Gaza Strip, where Israel continues its genocidal campaign against civilians and medical facilities. 

A statement from the Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC) and Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs held the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) responsible for the crimes committed against prisoners, warning of a “growing humanitarian disaster” and accusing Israeli authorities of working to “systematically and publicly liquidate prisoners.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees announced last week the deaths of two other Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli detention centers and prisons where Palestinian detainees are held are known for their extremely repressive and violent conditions, which include torture, rape, and other human rights violations. 

The UN warned earlier this year that Palestinians imprisoned across Israeli jails and detention camps have also faced waterboarding, sleep deprivation, and electrocution by Israeli prison authorities since 7 October 2023. 

RELATED READING: Welcome to Hell
Israeli detention centers and prisons where Palestinian detainees are held are known for their extremely repressive and violent conditions, which include torture, rape, and other human rights violations.
Israeli detention centers and prisons where Palestinian detainees are held are known for their extremely repressive and violent conditions, which include torture, rape, and other human rights violations. (AFP/Getty Images)

Palestinian detainees from Gaza held by Israel unaccounted for, say Israeli media

Many Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody are unaccounted for, with the army denying any knowledge of their whereabouts, according to Israeli media on Monday.

“The fate of many Palestinians from Gaza who were detained by the Israeli army is unknown,” said Haaretz. “The army claims that there is no indication that those Palestinians have been detained, despite the fact that they were last seen by the soldiers or before their arrest.”

The newspaper said that Palestinians and rights groups have filed 27 petitions to Israeli courts to know the fate of those detainees. “Most of these petitions, however, were rejected,” it added. “But in some cases, the petitions led the army to re-examine to find out that the people the army claims it has no information about were in Israeli detention centers or had died.”

Palestinians are detained by troops near northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, December 29, 2024.
Palestinians are detained by troops near northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, December 29, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

UN statement: Israel’s assault on the foundations of int’l law must have consequences

Israel must face the consequences of its campaign to undermine the legal framework for the protection of civilians in armed conflicts, a group of independent human rights experts* said today, as the full-scale armed assault on Gaza and forced displacement of its population continues unabated.

“As we have repeatedly reminded Israel, international humanitarian law comprises a set of universal and binding rules to protect civilian objects and persons who are not, or are no longer, directly participating in hostilities and limits permissible means and methods of warfare,” the experts said.

“Rather than abide by these rules, Israel has openly defied international law time and again, inflicting maximum suffering on civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory and beyond.”

Citing Israel’s most egregious violations, the experts highlighted crimes against humanity including murder, torture, sexual violence, and repeated forced displacement amounting to forcible transfer, war crimes encompassing indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian objects, including objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population and educational institutions and cultural heritage, the use of starvation as a weapon of war, the targeting of healthcare workers and health facilities, attacks on humanitarian workers, arbitrary restrictions on access to humanitarian aid, and attacks on journalists, collective punishment and perfidy…

“Israel’s continued impunity sends a dangerous message suggesting that parties to other conflicts around the world need not comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law,” they said. “We cannot afford to lose the force of the multilateral system. Israel and its leaders must be held accountable.”

Palestinians walk through what is left of Khan Younis, October 13, 2024
Palestinians walk through what is left of Khan Younis, October 13, 2024 (Doaa Albaz/Anadolu)

UN special rapporteur calls for global medical boycott of Israel

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on Palestine, has urged medical professionals around the world to sever ties with Israel as a direct response to the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system.

“I urge medical professionals worldwide to pursue the severance of all ties with Israel as a concrete way to forcefully denounce Israel’s full destruction of the Palestinian healthcare system in Gaza, a critical tool of its ongoing genocide,” Albanese said on X.

Her comments reflect growing international concern about the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where hospitals and clinics have been targeted and overwhelmed by relentless violence.

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STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – DECEMBER 30, 2024:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – December 30, 2024: at least 46,377* – 45,541 in Gaza; in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers and/or settlers have killed at least 836 Palestinians (~172 of them children).

Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.

According to a report in the Lancet, by multiplying the reported deaths by five, it is possible to reach a conservative estimate of total deaths (including indirect causes like starvation and lack of medicine). Using the latest figure from AFP (45,541), it is reasonable to estimate at least 227,705 total deaths in Gaza since October 7th, 2023.

According to a recent report by the UN Human Rights Office of identified fatalities in Gaza, about 44% were children. It is reasonable to estimate that 20,038 of known direct deaths and 100,190 of the total deaths are children.

Since Israel launched an extermination campaign in northern Gaza in early October, over 4,000 Palestinians have been killed or are missing and another 12,000 wounded.

Palestinian injuries from October 7, 2023 – December 30, 2024: at least 114,689 (including at least 108,338 in Gaza and 6,500 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – December 30, 2024: ~1,595 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 417*** (or 391) military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza (updated: Dec. 17); 43 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

ADDITIONAL STATISTICS: Since October 7th, 2023:

  • At least 50 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (at least 30 of them from Gaza).
  • At least 43 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition (at least 37 of them children)**.
  • About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
  • About 345,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

*The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.

Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals. 

***The figure does not include the reportedly 59 Israeli soldiers – nearly 17% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents. 

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

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