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Gaza health officials said that a 20-day-old baby died on Sunday from "severe cold" as the war-ravaged Palestinian territory grapples with winter weather.

Jumaa al-Batran died from the cold, while his twin brother remains in the intensive care unit at a local hospital, the health ministry in the territory said in a statement.

Marwan al-Hamas, head of field hospitals in Gaza, confirmed the death. He said it brought to five the total number of children "who have died due to severe cold" in recent weeks.

"There is no electricity. The water is cold and there is no gas, heating or food," said Yahya al-Batran, the father of the child.

"My children are dying in front of my eyes and nobody cares. Jumaa has died and I fear that his brother Ali may follow."

Yahya al-Batran said he and his wife were living in a tattered tent in the city of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. 

A baby froze to death overnight in Gaza

On Wednesday, a baby girl froze to death overnight in Gaza was the third to die from the cold in Gaza's tent camps, doctors said, deaths that underscore the squalid conditions.

The father of 3-week-old Sila, Mahmoud al-Faseeh, wrapped her in a blanket to try and keep her warm in their tent in the Mawasi area outside the town of Khan Younis, but it wasn't enough, he told news agency The Associated Press.

He said the tent was not sealed from the wind and the ground was cold, as temperatures on Tuesday night dropped to 9 degrees Celsius. Mawasi is a desolate area of dunes and farmland on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast.

"It was very cold overnight and as adults we couldn’t even take it. We couldn’t stay warm," he told the AP.

Sila woke up crying three times overnight and in the morning they found her unresponsive, her body stiff.

"She was like wood," said al-Faseeh.

They rushed her to a field hospital where doctors tried to revive her, but her lungs had already deteriorated.

Images of Sila taken by the AP showed the little girl with purple lips, her pale skin blotchy.

Ahmed al-Farra, director of the children’s ward at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, confirmed that the baby died of hypothermia.

He said two other babies — one 3 days old, the other a month old — had been brought to the hospital over the past 48 hours after dying of hypothermia.

Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are crammed into unsuitable tents, most of which were hastily set up in Deir el-Balah and in the southern areas of Khan Younis and Rafah.

Since the war began in October last year, Gaza's 2.4 million residents have endured severe shortages of electricity, drinkable water, food and medical services.

The vast majority of the territory's residents have been displaced at least once since 7 October, 2023.