By Middle East Correspondent
London, (The Muslim News): A fourth Palestinian infant has died from exposure in Gaza, while Israeli military strikes killed three people in what Palestinian officials described as further breaches of a fragile ceasefire, underscoring the parallel escalation of humanitarian collapse and military violence.
The two-month-old baby, Mohammed Abu Harbid, died from severe hypothermia after sheltering in a tent as winter storms swept across the enclave, Gaza health officials said on Saturday. His death is the fourth cold-related infant fatality reported since November, highlighting the perilous conditions faced by tens of thousands of displaced families.
At the same time, the Israeli military said its forces killed three Palestinians after they allegedly crossed a designated but unmarked security boundary known as the “Yellow Line”.
The army claimed the trio approached troops and were “posing an immediate threat”, prompting both air and ground fire. Palestinian medical sources said the incident followed other fatal Israeli attacks earlier in the day, amounting to fresh violations of the ceasefire that came into effect on October 10, 2025.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, at least 425 Palestinians have been killed and 1,189 wounded since the truce began. The figures add to the devastating toll of Israel’s offensive since October 2023, which has killed more than 71,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 171,000.
Baby Mohammed died at al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital, bringing the number of children who have frozen to death since the war began to 12, according to Zaher al-Wahidi of the Gaza Health Ministry.
As a severe weather system brings torrential rain and freezing winds, families across Gaza are struggling to survive in makeshift shelters. In western Gaza City, the Kafarna family said they spent the night physically holding up the poles of their deteriorating tent to stop it collapsing.
“I stood all night holding this pole, and my wife and daughters leaned against the wooden beams to brace against the wind,” said the father.
His wife described their shelter as little more than a “piece of cloth”. Their daughter Waad, wrapped in a donated tracksuit, made a simple appeal: “I wish they would bring us a ‘dome tent’ to protect us from the cold and rain.”
The crisis is proving equally deadly inside Gaza’s hospitals. At al-Awda Hospital’s neonatal ward in Nuseirat, staff say they are battling a systemic collapse in care. Ahmed Abu Shaira confirmed that the unit receives around 17 infants a day but faces an acute shortage of essential equipment.
A critical problem, he said, stems from Israel’s blockade. “Some incubators come to us without batteries … the occupation forces the entry of incubators without batteries.”
During one visit, electricity failed more than five times in an hour. “We try to reach a certain temperature for the child, but every time we do, the power cuts,” Abu Shaira said. Without internal batteries, incubators immediately lose heat during generator failures, placing premature babies at direct risk of hypothermia.
Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defence, said the suffering caused by winter weather could not be separated from the siege. “This is not merely a weather-related crisis,” he said. “What we are witnessing is a direct consequence of blocking the entry of construction materials and obstructing reconstruction.”
He warned that every new weather system now becomes a “real humanitarian catastrophe”, as bombed-out families remain trapped in exposed coastal tent camps vulnerable to collapse.
Attacks by Jewish illegal settlers intensify in West Bank
Violence also intensified in the occupied West Bank on Saturday. Illegal Jewish settlers reportedly stole around 200 sheep and a vehicle during an early-morning attack on the town of Kobar, northwest of Ramallah. Local sources said that settlers raided a farm owned by Thaer al-Nabbali, assaulting and detaining its guard.
The attack is part of a wider surge in settler violence, amid persistent complaints over the absence of accountability. Since October 2023, Israeli forces and illegal settlers have killed at least 1,103 Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, injured nearly 11,000, and detained around 21,000.
The violence has continued despite a landmark advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice last July, which ruled Israel’s occupation illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements.
Further south, a Palestinian man was injured and later detained in Hebron on Saturday evening after Israeli forces fired at a vehicle in the Khallet Hadour area, according to Palestinian security sources. Ambulances were reportedly prevented from reaching the wounded man, while Israeli forces later sealed entrances to the city and fired tear gas at civilians.
Israeli troops also carried out raids on several villages northeast of Ramallah, including Kafr Malek, al-Mughayyir and Abu Falah, firing stun grenades and tear gas. No injuries or arrests were immediately reported.
[Photo: Israeli forces detain two Palestinians and besiege a mosque during a raid in Nablus, West Bank on January 11, 2026. Special Israeli units conduct the operation in the Karyun neighborhood of Nablus’s Old City area. During the raid, soldiers surround a mosque and hold Palestinians inside for several hours. Photojournalist: Issam Rimawi/AA]
