SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
israel
Gaza Newborn Dies of Hypothermia as Israel Continues to Block Lifesaving Aid
"This must stop," the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said in response to the ongoing Israeli blockade. "Aid must be allowed in at scale, now."
Dec 16, 2025
Yet another infant has died from hypothermia in Gaza as winter rain and wind continued to lash the embattled Palestinian exclave on Tuesday amid Israel's blockage of tents and other essential goods from the coastal strip.
Gaza's Health Ministry announced the death of 2-week-old Mohammed Khalil Abu al-Khair, who died Monday after his body temperature plummeted due to exposure as cold, heavy rains, and fierce winds continued to batter the strip. Storm conditions have exacerbated the suffering of residents already weakened by more than two years of Israeli bombardment, invasion, and siege.
The ministry said that al-Khair was one of at least 13 Palestinian children who have died in recent days due to Storm Byron and subsequent rains. Confirmed victims include Rahaf Abu Jazar, age 8 months; Hadeel al-Masri, age 9; and Taim al-Khawaja, an infant whose precise age is unclear.
The renewed hypothermia deaths follow those of more than a dozen Palestinians—most of them infants and children—who died from exposure during the first two winters of the Gaza genocide. While the strip does not experience severe winters, experts have noted that hypothermia can be deadly at temperatures over 60°F (15°C) in overexposed conditions such as those in Gaza.
Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza since 2007, which it tightened even further following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack. This "complete siege" remains in place despite some loosening during the current tenuous truce, and has contributed to widespread starvation and sickness in the strip.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 70,667 Palestinians in Gaza, although experts contend the actual toll is likely far higher. More than 170,000 Palestinians have been wounded and approximately 9,500 others are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. Meanwhile, the overwhelmingly majority of Gaza's more than 2 million people have been forcibly displaced, usually more than once.
Noting the official death toll, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said Tuesday that "94% of Gaza’s hospitals have been damaged or destroyed, leaving pregnant women and newborns without essential care."
“The Israeli blockade has also prevented the entry of objects indispensable to the survival of civilians, including medical supplies and nutrients required to sustain pregnancies and ensure safe childbirth,” the agency added.
Storm Byron is worsening the already dire living conditions of thousands of people living in tents or damaged shelters.While #UNRWAworks to support displaced families, the Israeli Authorities have been blocking UNRWA from directly bringing aid into #Gaza for months.Aid must be allowed in at scale.
[image or embed]
— UNRWA (@unrwa.org) December 16, 2025 at 9:02 AM
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) communications chief Jonathan Crickx on Tuesday described a visit to one displaced persons camp in Gaza.
“Everything was completely damp... The mattresses were wet; the children’s clothes were wet," he recounted. "It’s extremely difficult to live in those conditions.”
“With the very poor hygiene conditions and very limited sanitation system available, we are extremely concerned to see the spreading of waterborne diseases," Crickx added.
Hunger remains a serious issue as well, with OHCHR citing the at least 463 Palestinians—including 157 children—who have died from malnutrition since October 2023 in what experts say is a deliberately planned Israeli starvation campaign.
The arrest warrants issued last year by the International Criminal Court accuse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including forced starvation and murder.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Horrible Scenes' in Gaza as Winter Storm Compounds Vicious Impacts of Israel's Genocidal Blockade
"This suffering is being manufactured by policy, not weather," said a humanitarian aid coordinator for Oxfam.
Dec 16, 2025
Makeshift tents billowing furiously in the wind. Children wading through ankle-high water. A young boy futilely beating back an oncoming wave with nothing but a broom.
These are just a few of the scenes that came out of Gaza in recent days as its population of nearly 2 million people was beset by heavy rainfall and punishing winds from Storm Byron, which hit late last week.
According to the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Jerusalem, more than 1.3 million Palestinians in the territory are without proper shelter following more than two years of relentless Israeli bombing, which destroyed or damaged over 90% of housing units.
"The conditions are catastrophic, I must say," Jonathan Crickx, the chief of communication for the UN Children's Fund, told PBS News. "I've been in many, many tents in the past two days, and the tents are completely flooded. I met with tens of children. Their clothes are wet, the mattresses in the tents are completely soaked. And those children, they are cold."
At least three children, including two infants and a 9-year-old, died from hypothermia or cold exposure within a 24-hour period. Another five were crushed after a house sheltering displaced civilians collapsed due to the storm. As of Friday, at least 14 people were reported dead from the storm, and several more are injured, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Interior and National Security.
"Civilians are now wading through sewage, mud, and debris, with no proper shelter," said Bushra Khalidi, the policy lead for Oxfam in the occupied Palestinian territories. "This is not a failure of preparedness or capacity; it's the direct result of the systematic obstruction of aid."
"The Israeli authorities continue to block the entry of basic shelter materials, fuel, and water infrastructure, leaving people exposed to entirely preventable harm," Khalidi continued. "When access is denied, storms become deadly. This suffering is being manufactured by policy, not weather."
Under the terms of the "ceasefire" agreement signed between Israel and Hamas in October, Israel was required to allow more than 600 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to enter Gaza each day. But according to UN data published earlier this month, just 113 trucks per day on average have been allowed to enter the strip, less than a fifth of the agreed-upon amount.
The Rafah crossing, the largest entry point for aid, still remains almost totally closed after being opened briefly during the first week of the ceasefire. Israel said earlier this month that it may soon reopen the crossing, but only to allow for the exit of Palestinians.
"Without question, the Israelis and their persistent bureaucracy have prevented us from bringing in the necessary shelter that would provide adequate dwellings for the people living in Gaza," said Chris McIntosh, Oxfam's humanitarian response adviser in the territory.
In the crowded coastal area of al-Mawasi, he said, some residents have been left with little to protect themselves from the elements but blankets and flimsy tarpaulin.
"Obviously, a blanket is not going to do much against torrential downpours and winds that are at nearly gale force," he said. "The Israelis have not permitted these tents to enter the Gaza Strip, not for many months... The population is bracing for a very, very tragic situation right now."
Official estimates put the death toll in Gaza at more than 70,600 since October 7, 2023, including more than 300 who have been killed during the ceasefire period across hundreds of attacks by Israel in violation of the agreement. But other independent studies, which take indirect effects of the genocide, like malnutrition and disease, into account, place the death toll much higher.
Keep ReadingShow Less
ICC Rejects Israeli Bid to Thwart Gaza War Crimes Probe
Israel is seeking to invalidate the ICC's arrest warrants for fugitive Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Dec 15, 2025
Appellate judges at the embattled International Criminal Court on Monday rejected Israel's attempt to block an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes committed during the Gaza genocide.
The ICC Appeals Chamber dismissed an Israeli challenge to the assertion that the October 7, 2023, attacks and subsequent war on Gaza were part of the same ongoing "situation" under investigation by the Hague-based tribunal since 2021. Israel argued they were separate matters that required new notice; however, the ICC panel found that the initial probe encompasses events on and after October 7.
The ruling—which focuses on but one of several Israeli legal challenges to the ICC—comes amid the tribunal's investigation into an Israeli war and siege that have left at least 250,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and 2 million more displaced, starved, or sickened.
The probe led to last year's ICC arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhau and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and forced starvation. The ICC also issued warrants for the arrest of three Hamas commanders—all of whom have since been killed by Israel.
Israel and the United States, neither of which are party to the Rome Statute governing the ICC, vehemently reject the tribunal's investigation. In the US—which has provided Israel with more than $21 billion in armed aid as well as diplomatic cover throughout the genocide—the Trump administration has sanctioned nine ICC jurists, leaving them and their families "wiped out socially and financially."
The other Hague-based global tribunal, the International Court of Justice, is currently weighing a genocide case against Israel filed in December 2023 by South Africa and backed by more than a dozen nations, as well as regional blocs representing dozens of countries.
University of Copenhagen international law professor Kevin Jon Heller—who is also a special adviser to the ICC prosecutor on war crimes—told Courthouse News Service that “the real importance of the decision is that it strongly implies Israel will lose its far more important challenge to the court’s jurisdiction over Israeli actions in Palestine."
Although Israel is not an ICC member and does not recognize its jurisdiction, Palestine is a state party to the Rome Statute, under which individuals from non-signatory nations can be held liable for crimes committed in the territory of a member state.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry condemned Monday's decision, calling it "yet another example of the ongoing politicization of the ICC and its blatant disregard for the sovereign rights of non-party states, as well as its own obligations under the Rome Statute."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington, DC-based advocacy group, welcomed the ICC decision.
“This ruling by the International Criminal Court affirms that no state is above the law and that war crimes must be fully and independently investigated," CAIR said in a statement. "Accountability is essential for justice, for the victims, and survivors, and for deterring future crimes against humanity.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular