As temperatures dropped in Gaza, this family took refuge in a hole 1.5 metres under their tent

Over the last nine months of the war in Gaza, Nora al-Batran was pregnant with twins. The 38-year-old was displaced multiple times with her husband and children as they skirted bombs and gunfire and sought refuge in a tent in the town of Deir al Balah. 

On Dec. 6, al-Batran gave birth to her twin sons, Jumaa and Ali, at the town’s Al-Aqsa hospital.

But two weeks later, Jumaa died of hypothermia as the cold weather set in and al-Batran struggled to keep her babies warm beneath the cloth tarps of her tent at night. 

“Because of the cold, my children stopped moving, they stopped nursing,” she told CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife. “It’s very difficult…. It’s very cold.” 

Cold weather and heavy rains have pummelled much of the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, leaving many Palestinians living in tents at risk against the elements, with one father digging a hole under his tent to offer refuge for his family. 

Jumaa was among eight babies who died of hypothermia in recent weeks, according to Dr. Ahmed al Farra at the Nasser Medical Complex. 

In the second winter of the war in Gaza, the weather has added an extra element of suffering for hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced.

Temperatures drop to around 10 C to 15 C at night in Gaza at this time of year.

A report published by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, in January says babies are dying of hypothermia because of a lack of access to basic supplies that are not making it across the border to civilians in Gaza. 

“Supplies which would protect them have been stuck in the region for months waiting for approval from the Israeli authorities to get into Gaza,” it reads. 

Infants are at higher risk of hypothermia because they lose heat faster than adults. Many have had to spend hours wet and cold because of the weather in Gaza, both issues that can lead to hypothermia, according to health professionals.

Sitting in her tent, her son, Ali, in her arms, al-Batran remembers the day she found Jumaa’s lifeless body next to her. 

She said the night before, she had wrapped Jumaa in as many blankets as she could find, only leaving his nose exposed so he could breathe, and placed a bottle of hot water in his blankets in an attempt to keep him warm.

“I woke up at 6 a.m. and found my son was blue and frozen. He wasn’t breathing,” al-Batan said. “I felt guilty that my child died in front of my eyes from the cold and I couldn’t do anything for him.” 

The eight babies who died were all less than a month old, said al Farra, head of pediatrics at Nasser hospital in southern Gaza.

“The situation is very critical and very serious. [Newborns] are not able to protect themselves from severe hypothermia because they are fragile babies,” he told El Saife. 

Babies more prone to hypothermia

Al Farra said those babies are already prone to hypothermia even if they are living in buildings with heat, “so what will happen when they are in a tent without any furniture, electricity, without any fuel for warming?” 

Every day, al Farra said, he sees four to five cases of babies with hypothermia at Nasser hospital. 

While the hospital does whatever it can to warm the babies and advise the parents on how to keep them warm, he said some arrive already dead, such as Jumaa.  

Al-Batran is among hundreds of mothers trying to survive the winter with her family. She said her older children sleep stuck to each other, using body heat to keep warm while she focuses on one-month-old Ali. 

“The nights are very cold, the people are living in makeshift tents, every time it’s too windy, it’s raining inside their tents,” Amanda Bazerolle, emergency co-ordinator with Doctors without Borders, told CBC News. 

Bazerolle said that last winter, many of the displaced were in Rafah, where buildings were still standing and people could shelter. 

“Today, most of the population is sheltering in tents or makeshift tents, so they are much more at risk, much more exposed to the elements,” Bazerolle said. 

In a post to X, Israel’s official unit tasked with co-ordinating humanitarian initiatives, COGAT, said that it was working with partners to “facilitate essential supplies and winter equipment delivered to Gaza.” The post goes on to say that 8,400 tonnes of winter items entered the Gaza Strip over the last three months, “including heating equipment, blankets, coats and clothing.” 

Sheltering from the cold

In Khan Younis, a concerned father is trying to protect his children from the cold by going below ground. 

Tayseer Obeid dug a hole two metres wide by 1.5 metres deep below his tent to give his 10 children some refuge from the bad weather. 

The holes, which he said people refer to as “grave-like,” are lined with plastic tarps to try to stop the sand from falling on the family. 

He built shelves to hold the family’s meagre belongings and stairs from sand so the kids can get in and out more easily. 

Above ground, he put two tents together to house his family. Both only have plastic tarps for cover. In the middle of all this, he made two swings for his children to play on. He said it took him 60 days to dig the hole. 

“This has been a daily routine for me. A daily routine that’s tough and exhausting,” he told El Saife. “The ground is hard and tough, and there were days where we were just tired.” 

Back in Deir al Balah, al-Batran holds her surviving son, Ali, in her arms. 

The one-month-old is wrapped in many blankets after his latest visit to the intensive care unit at Al-Aqsa Hospital with symptoms of hypothermia. 

With few options available to her, the mother has relied on bottles of hot water that she places in his blankets to keep the baby warm. But those only last a short time before they cool off. 

She said she fled from the war in northern Gaza and was met with destruction, cold and hunger in central Gaza. 

“How can anyone live like this?” she said. “How do I keep my kids warm?”