Gaza: 9-month-old infant martyred from extreme cold
Infant Kinan Ahmad Rqiq (9 months) was martyred due to hypothermia inside a displacement tent in Khan Younis, as winter approaches. His father rushed him to Nasser Hospital, but he had already passed away. Heavy rains swept away tens of thousands of tents and killed five people, including three children.
Infant Kinan Ahmad Rqiq, aged nine months, was martyred on Thursday due to hypothermia inside a displacement tent in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, as winter approaches. Agence France-Presse quoted a Palestinian doctor who examined the child's body saying he died from hypothermia, and the spokesman for the Civil Defense in Gaza, Mahmoud Basal, confirmed that the child died after suffering from extreme cold. The child's father, Ahmad Rqiq, said he woke up and saw that his son's skin had turned blue, so he rushed him to Nasser Hospital, but he had already passed away. He added outside the hospital, holding his child in his arms with tears on his cheeks: "I am in shock. I found myself carrying my son wrapped in a shroud." Heavy rains over the past week swept away tens of thousands of displacement tents in the Strip, and killed five people, including three children, after a sandy cliff collapsed onto displacement tents. Since that disaster, hundreds of displaced families have fled camps flooded by rainwater in parts of Gaza City and the northern and central Strip. The spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), James Elder, said in Geneva last Tuesday that "winter will arrive in a few weeks, and we are already witnessing unprecedented rain and cold."