Gazan Health Worker Dies in Khan Younis Due to “Extreme Cold”
Gaza (Quds News Network)- Palestinian nurse Ahmed al-Zaharneh, who was among the crews working at the European Gaza Hospital, died because of “extreme” weather conditions, according to the Health Ministry, as a suffocating Israeli siege makes harsh winter conditions unbearable.
In a statement issued on Friday morning, the ministry said, “His body was found inside his tent in al-Mawasi area, west of the city of Khan Younis, southern Gaza.”
“This incident comes in light of the difficult humanitarian conditions that displaced citizens are experiencing, as the suffering of Gaza residents increases due to low temperatures and the lack of heating means in tents,” the ministry added.
Ahmad Zaharna, a nurse at the European Gaza Hospital and the Red Cross Field Hospital, tragically passed away this morning due to the intense cold inside his displacement tent in the al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis. pic.twitter.com/1ti7JQsfz9
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) December 27, 2024
At least three babies also died from hypothermia in southern Gaza over the past two days. Doctors reported on Wednesday that a three-week-old girl froze to death overnight as temperatures plummeted amid a wet winter across the war-torn Palestinian enclave. The baby’s tent was not sealed against the wind and the ground was cold, the doctors said.
On Thursday, another baby, Sila Mahmoud al-Faseeh, was found unresponsive. By the time doctors reached her, her lungs had deteriorated and she was declared dead from hypothermia.
The baby “froze to death from the extreme cold” in al-Mawasi, said Dr Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, on X.
In another post, he described the tents in Gaza as “fridges of death”, citing the deaths of two other babies due to the bitter cold.
According to Ahmed al-Farra, head of paediatrics and obstetrics at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the infants were a three-day-old and a one-month-old baby.
The deaths highlight the dire conditions in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are crammed into makeshift tents, fleeing Israeli shelling from various parts of the strip.
