In a new humanitarian tragedy, Palestinian infant Aisha Adnan Al-Qassas died at dawn on Friday from severe cold inside a tent sheltering her and her family in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis, south of Gaza.
The child, who was not yet one year old, died due to a severe shortage of basic life necessities, highlighting the extent of suffering endured by displaced Palestinians in the besieged Strip.
More than two million displaced people in the Gaza Strip face dire humanitarian conditions. In light of Israel’s ongoing extermination war, temporary camps made of cloth and nylon have become the only refuge for hundreds of thousands of families who lack heating and protection from harsh weather conditions.
These displaced people face a severe shortage of food, water, and fuel, and rain floods their tents during air depressions, exacerbating their misery.
Since the start of the extermination war on Gaza, the Strip has seen widespread infrastructure destruction, resulting in a deterioration in humanitarian conditions.
According to UN reports, the people of Gaza are suffering from a famine that has claimed the lives of dozens of children and the elderly, as well as a complex health crisis caused by a lack of medicines and medical supplies as a result of the suffocating siege.
In the same context, an Israeli raid on the Abu Jarad family’s home in Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza, killed four Palestinians and injured several others.
This is part of an Israeli extermination war that has been ongoing since October 7, 2023, killing 45,206 people and injuring more than 107,512, according to the most recent Ministry of Health statistics in Gaza.
In just 24 hours, occupation forces committed three massacres against families, killing 77 Palestinians and injuring 174 others, despite the ongoing inability to recover victims from beneath the rubble due to the deliberate targeting of ambulance and civil defence personnel.
In light of these crimes, the international community must act quickly to end Israel’s war of extermination, lift the siege on the Gaza Strip, and launch an independent international investigation to hold those responsible accountable for these crimes, which rank among the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times.