GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense agency said on Tuesday that six newborn babies have died in a cold snap which has gripped the war-ravaged Palestinian territory over the past week.
“As a result of a severe cold wave and the lack of heating, we have recorded the deaths of six newborns during the past week up until today,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
Meteorologists say temperatures have fallen to zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) in recent days as a cold front has gripped the eastern Mediterranean.
Although an ongoing ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has seen a surge in the volume of humanitarian aid entering Gaza, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians continue to live in tents.
Many are camped out in the rubble of their former homes and are struggling to survive as temperatures drop.
Hamas has repeatedly accused Israel of preventing shelter materials from being delivered to Gaza’s 2.4 million people, most of whom have been displaced at least once during the war.
It blamed the deaths of the six newborns on Israel’s blocking of aid materials.
“We call on the mediators to take immediate action to stop the occupation’s violation of the ceasefire agreement ... and facilitate the entry of essential supplies such as shelter, heating and urgent medical items into Gaza,” Hamas said in a statement.
“This is crucial to protect the children of Gaza.”

CAIRO: Egypt rejects proposals to displace the Palestinian people in order to not “liquidate” the Palestinian cause and to avoid threatening the national security of countries in the region, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement on Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump has angered the Arab world with a plan to permanently displace the population of more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza, assert US control over the territory and turn it into an international beach resort.

Egypt will on March 4 host an emergency Arab League summit set to focus on Arab efforts to counter Trump’s plan and calls for Egypt and Jordan to resettle displaced Palestinians from Gaza. Both countries reject the proposal, citing national security concerns.

Arab leaders held a meeting on Friday in Riyadh attended by Gulf states, Egypt and Jordan. Sources familiar with the discussions said they tackled a mainly Egyptian proposal that could include up to $20 billion in funding over three years from Gulf and Arab states, but there was no official confirmation.

Palestinians fear a repeat of the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, during which hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians were expelled or fled their homeland around the time of the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.