An eighth infant has died of hypothermia in Gaza amid plumetting temperatures and Israel's continuous blockade of humanitarian aid including winter essentials and medicines into the enclave.
"I am the mother of Yousef. I lost him. They didn’t give a single moment to feel happy with my baby...” the infant’s mother told Al Jazeera.
"He died because of the very cold weather. He slept next to me and in the morning I found him frozen and dead. I don’t know what to say," she said.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, displaced multiple times amid relentless attacks by the Israeli army, crammed into often ramshackle tents as the cold, wet winter sets in. Aid groups have struggled to deliver food and supplies and say there are shortages of blankets, warm clothing and firewood.
According to multiple reports, Israel has been deliberately preventing food, water, medicine and other essentials from entering Gaza. It has also repeatedly attacked aid convoys and civilians gathered to collect whatever aid manages to pass through the borders.
The U.N. has declared a famine in parts of Gaza. An independent panel of aid experts found that nearly half of the Palestinians in the enclave are struggling with hunger. Many go days without eating. Palestinian authorities say dozens of children have starved to death.
Investigations by two foremost US government agencies in September this year concluded that Israel has been interfering with aid works in Gaza by deliberately blocking essential supplies, killing aid workers, razing agricultural structures, bombing ambulances and hospitals, sitting on supply depots and routinely turning away trucks full of food and medicine.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Health Ministry on Sunday said that Israel has killed 88 Palestinians in a single day.
The Israeli army bombed the Gaza enclave more than 100 times in just three days, killing over 200 Palestinians, with women and children comprising a majority of the victims, Al Jazeera reported.
“The past few days remind us of the initial days of this genocidal war across the Gaza Strip. More than 200 people have been killed in the past three days due to the ongoing attacks on residential buildings, on groups of people gathering in the streets, in marketplaces or inside their shelters,” journalist Hani Mahmoud told Al Jazeera.
“Just yesterday alone, more than 60 people were killed. And contrary to Israeli statements [that claim their targets are Hamas operatives] we are seeing women and children making up the vast majority of casualties," he added.
Israel had on Sunday claimed that it struck more than 100 targets across the Gaza Strip in the past two days, killing several Hamas fighters. In a statement, the Israeli army also claimed that it hit a number of launch sites used to fire projectiles towards Israeli territory.
According to Mahmoud, Israel extensively targetted displaced Palestinians who gathered to collect food.
"Early evening yesterday, Israeli forces hit a gathering of people in front of an evacuation centre in Bureij refugee camp, which was an UNRWA school, who were buying dinner at a falafel shop or buying something to drink. The drone attack killed four people and injured many others,” Mahmoud said.
"At the emergency department here at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, people were left on the floor and others were waiting to be admitted into the operating theatre. And by the time it’s their turn, it’s too late – they have already bled to death. The burns are quite severe, and no pain medication is available at the hospital,” Al Jazeera reported Mahmoud as saying.
“There is also a silent death going on. In the past weeks, due to the ongoing attacks, people are dying quietly because of the lack of medical supplies,” he added.
Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has so far killed at least 45,805 Palestinians and injured 109,064, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.